Stock market continued to descend amid losing momentum as investors anticipated key policy rate announcement by State Bank of Pakistan. Benchmark KSE-100 index shed 385.94 points, and recorded its intraday low at 42,153.29. It ended lower by 240.04 points at 42,299.19. The KMI-30 Index declined by 401.87 points to finish at 68,130.75, while the KSE All Share Index was down by 116.70 points, settling at 29,345.90. Out of the total traded shares, 122 advanced while 189 declined. All Share Volume decreased by 9.48 Million to 189.00 Million Shares. Market Cap decreased by Rs.31.53 Billion.Total companies traded were 356 compared to 350 from the previous session. Of the scrips traded 130 closed up, 206 closed down while 20 remained unchanged. The volume chart was led by Maple Leaf Cement Factory Limited, followed by Hascol Petroleum Limited and Unity Foods Limited. The scripts had exchanged 29.71 million, 25.38 million and 9.87 million shares, respectively. Sectors that dragged the benchmark index lower included commercial banks with 102.91 points, oil & gas exploration with 51.37 points and fertilizer with 42.09 points. Among the companies Habib Bank Limited led the losses closing 33.63 points lower, followed by MCB Bank Limited losing 26.06 points and Pak Petroleum Limited paring 21.88 points from the index. Sectors that added points to the the index were Chemical with 23 points, Automobile Assembler with 16 points, Engineering with 3 points, Sugar & Allied Industries with 2 points and Miscellaneous with 2 points. Among the companies most points added to the index was by ICI Pakistan Limited which contributed 11 points followed by Engro Polymer & Chemicals Limited with 9 points, Indus Motor Company Limited with 8 points, Atlas Honda Limited with 5 points and Honda Atlas Cars with 5 points. Meanwhile, The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced to maintain the policy rate at 13.25 per cent for the next two months in a bid to curtail inflation that remains unchanged at 11-12pc for the financial year 2020-21. In a press conference, the SBP’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) said that the decision was indispensable since the bank’s projection for the inflation had remained unchanged. Inflation was recorded at 12.6pc in December 2019 and 12.7pc in November 2019.This was in line with the last monetary policy review in November 2019, where SBP had again projected average inflation for FY20 to remain broadly unchanged at 11-12pc. “The MPC viewed the latest increase in CPI [Consumer Price Inflation] as primarily transitory in nature,” the central bank said in a statement. Terming the recent food inflation as ‘supply-side shocks’, the statement said that the “second rate effects on inflation from supply-side shocks have not materialized, and inflation expectations remain broadly anchored”. SBP Governor Reza Baqir said interest rate was comparatively low, at 8.4pc, when it was raised in July 2019. But despite a consistent increase in inflation in the previous months, the overall inflation outlook was stable as it (inflation) would be brought down to 5-7pc over the next two years.