Stocks took a dip on Monday as investors speculated ahead of monetary policy which was due to be released later in the day. Pakistan stocks exchange benchmark Kse-100 index lost 330.63 points on the day to close at 42,174.13. The market sentiments were primarily driven by speculation over monetary policy by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), as Investors booked profit on any gains during the day, and largely shied away from the market. The last monetary policy was announced on June 25th, in which the SBP reduced the policy rate by 100 basis points to 7%. Since March, the interest rate has been drastically cut by a cumulative 6.25% to pump maximum liquidity in the economy facing tough situation after emergence of Covid-19. Later in the day, the central bank maintained the status quo, and kept the policy rate unchanged at 7%. In a press release, the SBP noted that business confidence and the growth outlook in the country had improved since the last meeting held by the central bank in June. Moreover, on Monday, the index also succumbed to selling pressure as the trading activity at the index was knocked by the rollover week, wherein phenomenal activities of offloading the stocks purchased earlier at attractive valuation kicks in. On Monday, KSE-100 Index remained under pressure throughout the session, as the index traded in the red zone, registering its intraday low at 42,121.32 index level after losing 383.44 points. The index volumes decreased from 31.71 million shares recorded in the previous session to 231.11 million shares, while the overall market volumes also depleted from 516.13 million shares from the previous session to 433.94 million shares. The volume chart was led by Aisha Steel Mills Limited followed by Unity Foods and Fauji Foods Limited. The scrips exchanged 58.91 million, 48.20 million and 36.0q million shares, respectively. Sectors which dragged down the index were Commercial Banks with 91 points, Fertilizer with 52 points, Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 50 points, Oil & Gas Marketing Companies with 22 points and Power Generation & Distribution with 22 points. Among the scrips, most points taken off the index was by Oil & Gas Development Company Limited which stripped the index of 27 points followed by United Bank Limited with 21 points, Habib Bank Limited with 21 points, Fauji Fertilizer Company Limited with 21 points and ENGRO Corporation Limited with 19 points. Sectors, which continued add value to the index were Food & Personal Care Products with 4 points, Pharmaceuticals with 3 points, Automobile Assembler with 3 points and Vanaspati & Allied Industries with 1 points. Among the scrips, most points added to the index was by Kohinoor Textile Mills Limited which contributed 8 points followed by National Foods Limited with 6 points, Murree Brewery Company Limited with 6 points, Honda Atlas Cars (Pakistan) Limited with 5 points and Lucky Cement Limited with 5 points. Global markets: Covid-19 resurgence, FinCen leaks weighed down sentiments Global stocks took a hit on Monday amid rising fears over the possible economic repercussions of resurgence of covid-19 cases across globe. On Friday, World Health Organization warned that the coronavirus is “not going away,” noting that it’s still killing about 50,000 people a week. The number of cases of Covid-19 has now passed 31 million worldwide, resulting in more than 961,000 deaths. Moreover, sentiments across the global markets were hit by FinCen documents leak, as new investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists says several global banks including JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank “kept profiting from powerful and dangerous players” in the past two decades even after the U.S. imposed penalties on these financial institutions. The documents identified more than $2 trillion in transactions between 1999 and 2017 that were flagged by financial institutions’ internal compliance officers as possible money laundering or other criminal activity, the report said. In Asia, stocks posted losses across the board with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index leading the losses and fell 2.06% to close at 23,950.69. Among major stocks Hong Kong-listed shares of Standard Chartered and HSBC tumbled. Meanwhile, South Korea’s Kosp index also slipped 0.95% to close at 2,389.39, while Chinese stocks also took a hit and took down Shanghai composite by 0.63% to about 3,316.94. European stocks, also retreated on Monday, with banking stocks leading the losses, followed by travel stocks as all sectors and major bourses slid into negative territory. Among major markets, Germany’s DAX index led the losses, declining over 4%, followed by CAC-40 in France and UK’s FTSE-100 which lost over 3% each. London-listed shares of Standard Chartered tumbled 5.2% and HSBC fell 4.9%. Earlier in the trading day, shares of HSBC had fallen to a more than 25-year low, according to FactSet. In U.S, stocks fell sharply at Wall Street over mounting fears about the worsening coronavirus as well as uncertainty on further fiscal stimulus rattled traders. During the early trading hours, Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading nearly 3% lower, while S&P 500 was trading 2.6% lower. The tech heavy Nasdaq Composite was also trading over 2% lower during the trading session. Monday’s decline put the Dow on pace for its worst day since June 11, when it plunged more than 6%. Among the major loss bearing Shares, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan led the losses, dropping over 8% and 3% respectively.