KARACHI: The Pakistan stocks witnessed selling pressure on Tuesday prompted by delays in the government reaching an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pertaining to the ninth review, analysts said.

An analyst at Pearl Securities said downward pressure was further fuelled by the Economic Coordination Committee’s (ECC) decision to increase the gas tariffs to stop further increases in the gas circular debt.

“Moreover, reports of the IMF demands to further increase the policy rate to around 20 per cent in the coming monetary policy meeting further dampened the market sentiment.”

The KSE-100 Index closed at 41,150.16 points, down 566.79 points, or 1.36 per cent.

The All-share volume decreased 3 per cent to 188 million against 192 million shares traded the previous trading day.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said the investors mainly booked profits in the E&P sector, which showed tremendous growth during the last few days, as the investors booked short-term gains.

“Moreover, a delay in getting the final approvals from the IMF Board for the release of the ninth tranche of the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility triggered profit selling.”

Going forward, the analysts expect volatility to persist in the benchmark KSE-100 Index until the IMF ninth review can be successfully concluded.

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