Stocks suffer losses on eve of IMF meeting
On the eve of the IMF executive board’s meeting to approve the first tranche of the $7 billion new bailout for Pakistan, equities experienced continuous selling pressure, extending overnight losses due to rising political uncertainty. Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said stocks closed under pressure amid political noise and a weak rupee. He said that the government’s decision to review and terminate power purchasing agreements with the independent power producers over capacity payment issues, surging circular debt and concerns over likely further action on banks for manipulation of dollar rates for the opening of letters of credit contributed to the bearish close. In its review, Topline Securities said the downward drift was primarily driven by profit-taking, particularly in key stocks such as Hub Power and Engro Fertiliser, which reshaped the market sentiment. A broad sell-off in Hub Power, Engro Fertiliser, MCB Bank, Pakistan Petroleum, and Bank Alfalah dragged the index down by 400 points. Despite an early rally, the benchmark index extended overnight losses, hitting an intraday loss of 743 points. However, the benchmark index settled at 81,483.64 after shedding 366.86 points or 0.45pc day-on-day.