Stocks retreat on IMF delay, rate hike talks.

KARACHI -- Bears dominated the trading floor of the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday owing to the negativity on the macroeconomic horizon.

Topline Securities said the expectation of an interest rate hike in the monetary policy announcement due on April 4 pushed the stock market's benchmark index to an intraday low of 525 points.

The KSE-100 index opened on the higher side but sentiments soon became negative due to the delay in the signing of a staff-level agreement between the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said Arif Habib Ltd.

Prevailing macroeconomic uncertainties led investors to stay cautious, which resulted in the index closing lower than its preceding close.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 40,376.10 points, down 501.88 points or 1.23 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume increased 4pc to 148.5 million shares. The traded value went down 21.6pc to $13.8m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Fauji Cement Ltd (17.5m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (11m shares), Thatta Cement Ltd (9.2m shares), Fauji Foods Ltd (7.8m shares) and Ghani Global Holdings Ltd (5.9m shares).

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