Stocks tumble on political noise, IMF condition
On the eve of a crucial monetary policy decision for the next two months, the stock market faltered on renewed fears of political uncertainty and a new IMF condition, pushing the KSE index below 79,000 amid aggressive foreign selling on Wednesday. Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said stocks closed sharply lower on political uncertainty and cautious activity ahead of the State Bank of Pakistan’s monetary policy announcement amid high expectations of a third straight but significant cut in the policy rate, which trade and industry players believe is direly needed to revive economic activities. He added that weak global equities, uncertainty over legislation ahead of privatisation of state-owned enterprises and concerns over the new IMF condition of putting a bar on new industrial, special economic and export processing zones, depÂressed the investor sentiments about the economic outlook.