The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed selling pressure on Monday, with its benchmark KSE-100 Index closing lower by 1,360 points as investors remained cautious despite an expected rate cut in the key policy rate.
The KSE-100 started the session positive, hitting an intra-day high of 115,596.87.
However, selling pressure in the latter hours pushed the index to an intra-day low of 113,482.23.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 113,520.32, down by 1,360.16 points or 1.18%.
In a key development, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reduced the key policy rate by 100 basis points, taking it down to 12%. This was the sixth successive cut in the key interest rate since June 2024 when it stood at 22%.
“After the MPC, the market will shift focus on politics and the results season (anticipating large dividends from some banks and fertiliser stocks),” said Intermarket Securities in a note that had envisaged that a larger than 100bps cut could be a positive trigger for the stock market.
Another brokerage house Topline Securities said the Monday’s negative trend could largely be attributed to the weaker-than-expected financial results of MARI, which dampened investor sentiment.
“The company reported an earnings per share (EPS) of Rs9.3, with no cash payout, falling below market expectations and contributing significantly to the bearish activity observed during the trading session.
“POL from the E&P sector declared its 2QFY25 result, where the company posted an EPS of Rs26.7/share, taking 1HFY25 earning to Rs35.7/share, along with a cash dividend of Rs25/share for 1HFY25 results,” it said.
Key contributors to the upward trajectory included SYS, EFERT, FFC, POL, and BAHL, collectively adding 282 points. On the other hand, substantial declines in MARI, ENGROH, PSO, HUBC, and PPL weighed heavily on the market, accounting for a combined loss of 783 points, Topline said.
During the previous week, the stock market witnessed a mixed trend as the investors remained cautious and avoided taking fresh positions due to uncertainty on the implications of amendments in the tax bill regarding non-filers which adversely impacted market sentiments. The KSE-100 declined by 391.59 points on a week-on-week basis and closed at 114,880.49 points on Friday.
Internationally, US stock futures and Asian shares outside China slumped on Monday as investors weighed the implications of Chinese startup DeepSeek’s launch of a free, open-source artificial intelligence model to rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Meanwhile, the dollar rose after US President Donald Trump slapped Colombia with retaliatory levies and sanctions for turning away military aircraft carrying deported migrants. US Nasdaq Composite futures tumbled 1.8% as of 0158 GMT and S&P 500 futures sank 0.9%.
Japan’s Nikkei dropped 0.3%, reversing an initial advance. New Zealand’s equity benchmark slipped 0.6% and Singapore’s Straits Times index lost 0.2%.
At the same time, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rallied 0.9% and mainland blue chips added 0.2%, even after data showed a surprise contraction in manufacturing this month.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee saw a marginal decline against the US dollar, depreciating 0.03% in the inter-bank market on Monday. At close, the currency settled at 278.83 for a loss of Re0.08 against the greenback.
Volume on the all-share index decreased to 494 million from 632.04 million on Friday.
The value of shares declined to Rs25.94 billion from Rs37.80 billion in the previous session.
Sui South Gas was the volume leader with 51.65 million shares, followed by Cnergyico PK with 50.68 million shares, and WorldCall Telecom with 29.07 million shares.
Shares of 442 companies were traded on Monday, of which 97 registered an increase, 298 recorded a fall, while 47 remained unchanged.
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