Closing Bell: Fear of interest rate hike depresses the equity markets

July 12, 2019 (MLN): The KSE-100 index lost 202 points in today’s session and closed at 33,672-mark. It remained range bound and closed in consolidation during the first half of the session. However, after the news regarding Monetary Policy announcement flowed in, the index plunged abruptly as local investors feared another hike in interest rates.

Unfortunately, the news regarding $5 billion investment in Pakistan by heads of different Chinese companies seemed to make absolutely no difference to the local investors, as they continued to partake in selling activity.

Sector wise, the index was let down by Cement with 40 points, Power Generation & Distribution with 28 points, Oil & Gas Marketing Companies with 27 points, Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 18 points and Automobile Assembler with 18 points.

The most points taken off the index was by PSO which stripped the index of 21 points followed by ENGRO with 15 points, HUBC with 15 points, POL with 12 points and DGKC with 11 points.

Sectors propping up the index were Fertilizer with 30 points and Inv. Banks / Inv. Cos. / Securities Cos. with 1 point.

The most points added to the index was by FFC which contributed 30 points followed by EFERT with 13 points, UBL with 10 points, HBL with 9 points and MEBL with 3 points.

The Index traded in a range of 402.40 points or 1.19 percent of previous close, showing an intraday high of 34,000.76 and a low of 33,598.36.

Of the 86 traded companies in the KSE100 Index 14 closed up 65 closed down, while 7 remained unchanged. Total volume traded for the index was 43.37 million shares.

All Share Volume increased by 16.02 Million to 55.51 Million Shares. Market Cap decreased by Rs.34.16 Billion.

Total companies traded were 304 compared to 305 from the previous session. Of the scrips traded 62 closed up, 218 closed down while 24 remained unchanged.

Total trades increased by 5,690 to 23,997.

Value Traded increased by 0.84 Billion to Rs.2.28 Billion

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