The KSE-100 was down for a fourth successive session, extending its losing streak to 5.5% this week as investors remained negative over the prevailing economic situation in the country as well as the upcoming MSCI reclassification.

The stock market's benchmark index last closed positive on Friday last week ahead of the monetary policy announcement.

However, since then, the KSE-100 has retreated 5.5%, going down from 46,489.41 to 43,935.75 on Thursday. Some analysts have attributed the fall to the jumbo interest-rate hike, while some continue to remain pessimistic over the various measures Pakistan would take to move ahead with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.

At close, the KSE-100 Index ended with a sharp fall of 427.95 points or 0.96% to settle at 43,935.75.

Volume and value of shares traded also declined significantly with a meagre 195 million shares changing hands on the all-share index.

“Investors are concerned over continuous foreign selling over MSCI reclassification due next week,” said Topline Securities in its post-market comment.

Earlier this month, MSCI transferred three Pakistani stocks to its MSCI Frontier Markets Index, a change that would take place as of the close of November 30, 2021. The development comes as Pakistan was downgraded from an emerging to the frontier markets index, the announcement of which was made earlier.

KSE-100 falls another 585 points as bearish trend continues

On the economic front, according to the latest data, the central government’s debt inflated by 13% on a year-on-year basis to Rs40,259 billion.

Out of the total debt, 66% debt was from domestic sources, while remaining 34% was from external sources.

Sectors wiping the gains of KSE-100 index included banking (137.66 points), power generation and distribution (63.99 points) and fertiliser (54.77 points).

Meanwhile, volumes on the all-share index were down from 310.38 million on Wednesday. The value of shares traded declined significantly, amounting to Rs8.39 billion, down from Rs12.95 billion on Wednesday.

TPL Properties XB was the volume leader with 16.33 million shares, followed by Byco Petroleum with 12.23 million shares, and Hub Power Company at 9.50 million shares.

Shares of 328 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 121 registered an increase, 185 recorded a fall, and 22 remained unchanged.