KSE-100 adds 234.46 points before MPS Announcement; Market expects status-quo in policy rate

The newly appointed governor of State Bank of Pakistan Tariq Bajwa is set to announce first monetary policy on Saturday. Most of the economic experts and analysts believe that interest rate would be unchanged.

First Monetary Policy of the upcoming fiscal year by the new governor would surface on weekend which would be announced through a press conference tomorrow. According to the norms, Central Bank announces six monetary policies every year of this two are announced through Press Conferences in July and January while rest through statement (Email).

After talking to 14 economists and analysts belonging to different brokerage houses, banks and financial institutions, it is expected that central bank is to keep the interest rate unchanged at 5.75 percent which has been unchanged for more than a year.

Average Inflation rate during Fiscal year ended June 30, 2017 was at 4.16 percent and interest rate was at 5.75 percent which has been at a 42 year low mark.

Naeem Rafi of Rafi Securities expects the Policy Rate to remain unchanged. “The rates are expected to remain unchanged, there seems to be no stimuli in the market to prompt such an action from the Central Bank.”

Commenting on the market activity, Mr. Rafi said that “The political uncertainty has extracted stability from the market; there is no direction in the market.”

Adding to instability in the previous few weeks, he said “The lack of macro stability has prompted a decline in investor participation”.

Market added a total of +234.46 points or a gain of +0.52% during today's session. The index touched an intra-day low of 44548.36 points, a high of 45382.22 and closed at a tally of 45294.39 points.

The net gainers by price during today's session were; Sapphire Textile Pakistan SAPT +94.15, Mari Petroleum MARI +60.84, Millat Tractors Limited MTL +42.47, Hinopak Motors HINO +40.00 and Khyber Tobacco KHTC +38.60.

The net decliners by price during today's session were; Bata Pakistan BATA -25.00, Sanofi-Aventis Pakistan SAPL -17.15, Faisal Spinning Mills FASM -13.34, Tandlianwala Sugar Mills TSML -11.00 and Indus Motor Company INDU -10.74.

All Share Volume decreased by 25.67 Million to 122.45 Million Shares.

Total companies traded were 351 compared to 360 from the previous session. Of the scrips traded 208 closed up, 126 closed down while 17 remained unchanged.

Total trades decreased by 10,828 to 62,441.

Value Traded decreased by 40 million to Rs.9.30 Billion.

Top 10 Volume Traded