Brent trading above $130. Gold above $2040. Disruptive behavior of Commodities market continues. Intense and insane level of speculative activity.
There are talks about allowing Iran and Venezuela Oil in the market. So far there is no progress on that. There are also talks of Biden visiting Saudi Arabia for more Oil supply. In this tense situation however nothing might calm commodities and Oil till a settlement is reached in Ukraine and Russia is back in international economic system.
KSE100 closed at 42,878 losing 388 points down-0.90%. Trading activity was less than yesterday and a total of 93mn shares were traded on $29mn.
Market had traded substantial part of the day in an orderly manner, But speculative pressure came in the end as news of no confidence move against PM materialized. There was no selling pressure from any quarter including 'Funds' despite that SBP Monetary Policy meeting was scheduled today. TRG that has major chuck of future open interest and also of MTS and MFC closed in green. Surprisingly OGDC remained under pressure despite record high oil prices showing concerns on circular debt in energy sector and the fact that major market participants already have substantial stack in OGDC that had resulted due to foreign selling.
Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of State Bank of Pakistan held its scheduled meeting today and surprisingly made no change in policy rate and kept it at 9.75%. Announcement.
Bonds rates and KIBOR was facing upward pressure lately and there were expectations of 50bps increase. The MPC however stated that it might earlier than scheduled meeting in April if Ukraine situation that has added a high degree of uncertainty in commodities prices trend, so requires. Read full MPC statement here.