KARACHI: Starting on positive note, the Pakistan Stock Exchange closed negative after shedding 69.15 points or 0.17% to settle at 40,929.44 on Monday.
The central bank increased the interest rate by 100 basis points to 8.5% on Saturday citing persistent concerns over the economic front on the back of rising inflation and large twin deficits.
Although the index changed its direction later in the day, it failed to make any gains. Tariq Glass (-2.2%) announced its FY18 result, posting earnings per share of Rs14.94 along with cash dividend of Rs6 per share.
Cement and exploration and production stocks pulled the market down where Lucky Cement (-1.12%), DG Khan Cement (-1.75%), Pakistan Oilfields (-0.20%) and Oil and Gas Development Company (-0.69%) closed lower.
However, he said, it seemed that the hike in interest rate did not have much impact on financial stocks as mixed sentiments were noted. MCB Bank (-0.17%) and United Bank (-0.35%) fell whereas Habib Bank (+0.29%) was slightly positive.
Major heavyweights namely Habib Bank, Oil and Gas Development Company, MCB Bank, United Bank, Pakistan Oilfields, Fauji Fertiliser (-0.65%) and Lucky Cement cumulatively wiped 44 points off the index.
Overall, trading volumes decreased to 106.3 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 145.9 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs3.5 billion.
Shares of 366 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 117 stocks closed higher, 222 declined and 27 remained unchanged.
The Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 21.2 million shares, losing Rs0.04 to close at Rs11.79. It was followed by Unity Foods with 14.9 million shares, gaining Rs0.56 to close at Rs31.99 and Pak Elektron with 4 million shares, gaining Rs0.47 to close at Rs31.21.