KARACHI: Pakistani stocks went down slightly on Wednesday on different speculations throughout the day including negative projections from the State Bank of Pakistan. The KSE-100 closed down with 138.00 points (-0.34 per cent) at 40,514.67.
The trading volume further declined to 145.8 million shares today as compared to 150.3 million traded in the previous session, according to PSX website data. The daily traded value decreased to Rs 6.250 billion from Rs 6.336 billion in the previous session, the data said.
The market had touched at 40,657.30 levels during the session, while it remains low at 40,344.92 points.
There were negative sentiments in the stock markets owing to the coronavirus tension and demand from Saudi Arabia to pay back $2 billion.
The analysts said that there was no good news in the economy report released by the State Bank of Pakistan today in which it projects GDP of 1.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent for this current fiscal year, while the inflation to remain at 7% to 9%. The SBP also projected remittance of $22 to $23 billion and exports would be around $23.3 billion to $23.8 billion.
According to the SBP’s report the fiscal deficit to range-bound between 6.5% to 7.5% of GDP and the current account deficit to range 1% to 2% of GDP, the analyst said.
The dollar has again started moving up in the interbank market and touched Rs 160 despite the claim of the finance minister that the US dollar would be stable in Pakistan.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include TRG, UNITY, SNBL, KEL and AVN, which formed 26% of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include MCB (+15pts), TRG (+12pts), ISL (+6pts), MEBL (+6pts) and FFC (+5pts). Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (-20pts), PPL (-19pts), ENGRO (-17pts), PSO (-14pts) and POL (-14pts).
