Bears took hold of the PSX on Monday. The KSE100 index closed 554.66 points in the negative to bring the index to 39,632.

The market took off to a shaky start with the index immediately plunging to negative at the opening bell. Near midday, as the government announced closure of schools due to the second wave of Covid-19, the index saw laws of over 800 points in the red. Value hunters jumped in at these levels to cause a slight recovery before close.

The market continues to suffer from negative sentiments in the wake of the second Coronavirus wave. The government has continued to affirm that a complete lockdown will not take place this time however with news of the closure of schools it is inevitable that further restrictions are around the corner.

Monetary Policy Statement was inline with market expectations as the State Bank of Pakistan chose to keep the rate unchanged at 7%.

Globally Covid-19 continues to batter world economies as looming lockdowns are causing losses in many industries. Daily case numbers have surpassed all previous records in a number of countries with scientist predicting that we are far from the end of this pandemic. At closing only 67 companies were in the green with 267 scrips closing in the red. 22 symbols remained unchanged.

Market participation for the KSE100 Index decreased to 118M from 125M in the previous session (-6% on d/d basis). Major contribution to total market volume came from UNITY, HASCOL and TRG taking a total of 44M shares out of the total market volume of 195M shares.