Stocks drift lower in jittery week
The stock market observed a roller coaster ride in the outgoing week. Arif Habib Ltd said the highlight of the week was the policy rate announcement by the State Bank of Pakistan, which kept the key interest rate at 22 per cent in line with expectations. Moreover, there was a treasury bill auction, which saw no significant change in cut-off yields across all tenors. FurtherÂmore, global credit ratings agency Fitch chose to keep Pakistan’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating unchanged at CCC despite favourable economic signs like the strengthening of the local currency and the continuation of a Stand-by Arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In addition, Saudi oil giant Aramco signed a definitive agreement to acquire a 40pc equity stake in Gas and Oil Pakistan Ltd. The large-scale manufacturing index witnessed a fall of 4.1pc year-on-year in October while the month-on-month decrease was 2pc. Foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan surged by $21 million to $7bn. The rupee closed at 283.26 against the greenback after appreciating by 0.22pc week-on-week. As a result, the KSE-100 index closed at 66,130 points after declining by 94 points or 0.14pc from a week ago.