KSE-100 opens bearish today

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange opened on a bearish note as the KSE-100 index witnessed a decline of 66.74 points, or 0.14 per cent, in the first hour of trading on Monday.

The local bourse on Friday remained in the positive trajectory due to the market consensus of an increase in the interest rate and investors’ interest mostly inclined to the banking sector. The market mostly stayed in the green zone, mainly led by the banking sector.

“The local equity market is under pressure after the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) increased the benchmark interest rates by 150bps against the general consensus of 100bps to 8.75 per cent which is putting pressure in the market,” Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said.

The bourse will likely remain under pressure as the news of the current account deficit deteriorating to $1.7 billion is also creating further volatility in the market.

Read more: KSE-100 opens bullish today