The central bank would unveil its much-awaited Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) on January 24, Business Recorder has learnt. Some media reports suggesting that the State Bank would announce monetary policy on January 15 had created confusion among some stakeholders.
"Investors are taking positions on their expectation for the monetary policy announcement," said Ahsan Mehanti, a director at Arif Habib Corporation.
The confusion, the equity analyst apprehended, might lead to some pressure on a sentiment-driven market.
Though lesser in number, there are traders at KSE who utilise the Cash-Settled Futures (CSF) contracts as an investment window. The CSF volume, Mehanti estimated, may be ranging from Rs 10 billion to Rs 20 billion.
"In a market of Rs 7000 billion, this Rs 10 billion is no amount," the analyst viewed saying much of the leveraged stocks were being held by the institutional investors. "The institutions like mutual funds do leveraging now," he added.
Yasin Lakhani, a director at KSE Board, views that the stocks market had, logically, factored in a 50 basis points rate-cut. "But, not everything follows the logic," the senior stocks broker added. Lakhani sees no pressure on the bourse which, he said, was abundant with a "lot of money".
SBP chief spokesman Abid Qamar confirmed to Business Recorder that the MPS is usually announced in the second week of the month. But, this time it was deferred to next week, he added. The chief spokesman cited "No (special) reason" when asked for the same.
"It only depends upon the availability of all board members and the Governor," Qamar explained.
Analysts widely expect a policy rate cut of at least 0.5 percent or 50 basis points from the present 9.5 percent.
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