KSE-100 opens bearish today

KARACHI: The Pakistan stocks opened on a bearish note as the KSE-100 index witnessed a decline of 86.39 points, or 0.20 per cent, in the first hour of trading on Monday.

The local bourse closed in the negative zone on Friday, as higher trade deficits, reports of $55 billion external debt repayments, $7.1 billion current account deficit and uncertainty over the mini-budget with new taxes ahead of the resumption of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme played a catalytic role in the negative close.

Read more: Pakistan bourse expected to remain under pressure

A lacklustre session was witnessed at the local bourse, wherein trading opened on a positive note and gained 200 points but eventually, due to the lack of positive triggers, the investors chose to book profit ahead of the rollover week.

Analysts said that the local market in today’s opening is reacting negatively to the investors’ concerns over the dismal economic outlook, political noise, reports of surging external debt and the rupee instability kept the market under pressure.

The pressure on the external account, rising inflationary reading, recurring waves of Covid-19, delay in the approval of the IMF’s sixth review, and transition from the MSCI Emerging Markets to the Frontier Markets put pressure on the bourse.