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KSE-100 falls over 200 points as political uncertainty rattles market

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  • At close, benchmark KSE-100 index lost 200 points, or 0.46%, to end session at 43,653.33 points.
  • Stocks of 332 companies were traded, of which 110 gained in value, 205 declined, and 17 remained unchanged.
  • Arif Habib Ltd says market had opened in green zone and stayed volatile throughout day.

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended the week on a negative note with benchmark KSE-100 closing in the red due to the political unrest in the country in the backdrop of the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The recovery of the rupee against the US dollar, remittances data, and decline in the international oil prices failed to attract market participants, who remained wary of the overall political situation.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index lost 200 points, or 0.46%, to end the session at 43,653.33 points.

Arif Habib Limited, in its post-market commentary, noted that the market had opened in the green zone and stayed volatile throughout the day. It added that the range-bound session was observed due to the “political unrest and overheated commodities cycle”.

Sectors contributing to the performance included commercial banks (-43.0pts), exploration and production (-42.0pts), cement (-40.1pts), power (-30.0pts) and oil marketing companies (-19.5pts).

Stocks of 332 companies were traded, of which 110 gained in value, 205 declined and 17 remained unchanged.

Overall trading volumes dropped to 149.29 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 271.90 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs5.26 billion.

TPL Properties was the volume leader with 12.27 million shares traded, losing Rs1.26 to close at Rs22.46. It was followed by Pak Elektron with 11.9 million shares traded, losing Rs0.67 to close at Rs1.82, and TPL Corporation with 9.39 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.03 to close at Rs10.06.

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Robust activity lets PSX climb above 115,000 level again.

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On Friday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) resumed its upward trend, crossing 115,000 points once more.

The PSX had strong action in the morning session, as the KSE-100 index increased by 1,000 points to 115,138.

The notoriously volatile PSX closed Thursday at 114,037 points, up 594 points.

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Meanwhile, in the interbank market this morning, the US dollar fell 7 paisas to Rs278.65 against the Pakistani rupee.

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SBP will announce monetary policy on January 27.

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The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will release its monetary policy on Monday.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the SBP will convene on the first day of the following week to make decisions on monetary policy.

The Monetary Policy decision will be announced by Governor SBP Jameel Ahmad at a news conference on the same day after the MPC meeting, according to an official release.

In December, the central bank reduced policy rates by 200 basis points (bps) to 13 percent.

“In November 2024, headline inflation fell to 4.9 percent year on year, meeting the MPC’s estimates. This decrease was mostly caused by the ongoing decline in food inflation and the phasing out of the impact of the gas tariff increase in November 2023,” SBP stated in an official release.

“However, the Committee noted that core inflation, at 9.7 percent, is proving to be sticky, while consumer and business inflation expectations remain volatile.” To that end, the Committee restated its previous assessment that inflation may remain volatile in the short term before stabilizing within the target range.

“At the same time, growth prospects have slightly improved, as evidenced by a recent increase in high-frequency indicators of economic activity.” Overall, the Committee concluded that its approach of gradual policy rate decreases is keeping inflationary and external account pressures under control while promoting long-term economic growth.

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Finance Minister Meets With World Leaders at World Economic Forum in Davos

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During his attendance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has met with officials of organisations and leaders of many nations.
Bangladesh’s Chief Advisor, Muhammad Younas, met with Mohammad Aurangzeb.
On the fringes of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2025 Opening Banquet, there was an informal meeting.
Additionally, the Finance Minister met with Anwar Ibrahim, the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
Both leaders discussed economic cooperation and bilateral ties.
Muhammad Aurangzeb also had a meeting with Dp World’s Rizwan Soomro and Yuvraj Narayan.
They talked about how to strengthen Pakistan’s logistics and infrastructure systems to support trade.
“The Pakistani government is committed to advancing joint projects and values partnerships in both business-to-business and business-to-government cooperation,” the finance minister added.

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