Stock market’s historic high ends in devastating loss as October closes

KARACHI: On October 30, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) soared by over 1,000 points to close at 91,871 points. The closing day of the month, however, dipped by over 1,300 points neutralizing Wednesday’s gains and then some.

The same factors that have been termed as the cause of the hike of the benchmark KSE-100 index were blamed for the decline – inflationary pressures and central bank’s policy rate.

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With the overall improvement in the economic indicators, the petrol price was expected to go down as well as the new policy rate by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). However, the government’s decision to hike the petrol price, coupled with the PIA privatisation bid fiasco has, once again pushed the market into uncertainty.

Profit-taking and the rupee’s volatility also added to downward pressures in the bourse. Altogether, the KSE-100 index closed 1,319.8 points lower than opening level at 88,966.76 points, after several days of incredible rally.