KARACHI: Some respite came for investors on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday as the benchmark index recovered after five consecutive negative sessions following the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) dismissal of interest rate hike speculations.
The SBP dispelled rumours about holding an emergency meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee, saying that such reports were “completely baseless.”
“The reports making rounds in media about holding of an emergency meeting of the MPC of SBP are completely baseless,” the central bank said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
The SBP said that the next meeting of the MPC is scheduled to be held on Sept 14 to take stock of the economic developments and make an appropriate decision in this matter.
In response, the benchmark KSE-100 index gained 310.24 to close at 45,313 level, up 0.7 per cent.
Ahsan Mehanti, managing director and CEO at Arif Habib Commodities, attributed the market’s recovery to the government’s commitment to meeting the conditions set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which generated optimism among investors.
“Stocks showed recovery led by selected scrips across the board due to investors’ expectations of a positive outcome in meeting IMF conditions, avoiding subsidies, and the SBP’s clarification regarding the scheduled policy meeting on Sep 14,” said Mr Mehanti.
“The surge in global crude oil prices and speculations over the likely execution of the IMF-approved government circular debt management plan to ease off the power sector’s circular debt crisis played a catalytic role in the bullish close,” he added.
Investors remained sceptical as participation remained on the lower end, with traded volume and value standing at 162 million shares and Rs4.46bn, as reported by Topline Securities.
Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices were Nestle Pak (Rs89), Indus Motor (Rs52), Mari Petroleum (Rs19.61), Atlas Honda (Rs16.89), and Exide Pak (Rs14.62).
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Nishat Chunian Power (14.18m shares), WorldCall Telecom (12.70m shares), Al-Shaheer Corp (12.14m shares), SEARL2 (8.54m shares) and JS Bank Ltd (7.31m shares).
Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2023
