Overview
- The State Bank of Pakistan reduced the policy rate by 50 basis points to 10.50%, effective December 16, surprising a market that largely expected a hold.
- The KSE-100 jumped to fresh intraday highs above 171,900 on Tuesday after briefly topping 171,000 a day earlier, but it closed down 294 points at 170,447 following volatile trading and profit-taking.
- Trading activity stayed heavy, with total volumes near 1.17 billion shares and turnover around Rs53.4 billion on Tuesday, extending robust participation seen in earlier sessions.
- Early gains were led by energy, banks and other cyclicals, while later selling in exploration and production, fertiliser and cement names erased much of the advance.
- Sentiment found support from the IMF’s $1.2 billion approval, a Rs14-per-litre cut to high-speed diesel prices and a marginal downtick in the interbank dollar rate.