Market watch: Index declines on monetary policy anticipation

Benchmark KSE-100 index falls 78.62 points.

KARACHI: The stock market saw a volatile session losing intraday gains after the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) surprised participants by announcing that the monetary policy will be announced on November 13th.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index fell 0.34% or 78.62 points to end at 23,302.46 points.

“Pakistan equities opened positive with interest mainly in cements as the KSE-100 index crossed the crucial 23,500 barrier. Energy, textiles and Engro Corp (ENGRO PA +.3%) also helped in morning trade, however, the mood turned sour when the SBP surprised participants with the monetary policy announcement (to be announced on Wednesday instead of later this month),” said Faisal Bilwani of Elixir Securities.



“Day traders were first to panic and attempted to square positions as a 50 basis points hike is the most likely outcome.” Bilwani further added.

“Traders shed short term positions in anticipation of a larger than expected policy rate hike as Oil and Gas Development Company (-1.1%), Pakistan Petroleum Limted (-1.0%) and Pakistan State Oil (-2.9%) were the major decliners for the day. Caution also prevailed because of the long weekend ahead due to Ashura holidays on Thursday and Friday” said Ovais Ahsan of JS Global Securities.

“The banking sector though continued to rally on expectations of an interest rate hike as United Bank Limited (+1.5%), National Bank of Pakistan (+1.6%) and HBL (+1.4%) closed the day in the green zone. The cement sector also produced winners for the day as Lucky Cement (+1.9%) and Cherat Cement (+5%) gained in anticipation of strong margins and top line growth,” Ahsan added.

Trade volumes fell to 163 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 205 million shares.

Shares of 339 companies were traded on Tuesday. At the end of the day 136 stocks closed higher, 178 declined while 25 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs6.3 billion.



Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 18.5 million shares gaining Rs0.50 to finish at Rs11.38. It was followed by Fauji Cement with 16.9 million shares losing Rs0.19 to close at Rs12.19, and Jahangir Siddiqui and Company with 12.2 million shares declining Rs0.44 to close at Rs9.01.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs1.17 billion, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 13^th, 2013.

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