The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained bearish ahead of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on Monday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding 94.37 points (-0.21 percent) to close at 44,923.91 points. The market witnessed a low-volume, dull and range-bound trading session. It switched between the green and red territories during the first one-and-a-half-hour minutes of the session and then remained negative for the rest of the session. A current account deficit of $9 billion for the first half of the ongoing fiscal year, rising import bill, soaring energy and commodity prices globally also weighed down on investors’ confidence, besides uncertainty about interest rate ahead of the MPC meeting. However, as expected, the State Bank of Pakistan held the policy rate unchanged at 9.75 percent, which is likely to provide a positive trigger to the market on Tuesday, as the MPC meeting concluded after the end of the Monday session. The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 247.09 points, showing an intraday high of 45,044.51 points and a low of 44,797.42 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 92.34 points (-0.30 percent) to close at 30,786.28 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index shed 47.06 points (-0.21 percent) to close at 22,164.7 points. A total of 346 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 100 closed up, shares of 230 closed down while shares of 16 companies remained unchanged. Out of 90 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 30 closed up, 58 closed down and two remained unchanged. The overall market volumes decreased by 15.92 million to 160.21 million shares. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index decreased by 1.33 million to 88.54 million shares. The number of total trades decreased by 14,868 to 84,087, while the value traded decreased by Rs1.33 billion to Rs5.74 billion. Overall, market capitalisation decreased by Rs23.12 billion. Among scrips, CNERGY topped the volumes with 25.46 million shares, followed by TRG (21.13 million) and HASCOL (11.82 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included CNERGY, TRG, HASCOL, WTL, and HUMNL, which formed around 47 percent of total volumes. In terms of rupee, SAPT remained the top gainer and witnessed an increase of Rs75 per share, closing at Rs1,124 whereas the runner-up was SIEM, the share price of which climbed up by Rs21.84 to Rs660. UPFL remained the top loser in terms of rupee and witnessed a decrease of R152 per share, closing at Rs2o,847, followed by PMPK, the share price of which declined by Rs30 to close at Rs770 per share. The sectors taking the index towards south were technology & communication with 72 points, cement (25 points), commercial banks (17 points), refinery (14 points) and engineering (9 points). The most points taken off the index were by TRG which stripped the index of 53 points followed by SYS (17 points), HBL and UBL (12 points each), and CNERGY (7 points). The sectors taking the index towards north were fertilizer with 49 points, oil & gas marketing companies (12 points), power generation & distribution (7 points), and close-end mutual fund and insurance (3 points each). The most points added to the index were by FFC which contributed 24 points followed by EFERT (22 points), PSO (15 points), HUBC (13 points) and MCB (12 points).