The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) had a volatile start to the first trading day of the month. The benchmark KSE-100 index fell 0.19pc, and both the number of shares traded and their value fell by a large amount. The market sentiment was supported to some degree by the flow of news regarding the arrival of a tranche of $1.2b from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the current week, which caused the KSE-100 index to open on a positive note and hit an intra-day high of 40,378.51 points, an increase of 228 points. However, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rate of 24.93pc for the month of July brought some gloom as some selling pressure was seen, which ultimately led to the KSE-100 falling. At the end of trading, the KSE-100 finished lower by 74.40 points, which is a 0.19pc drop, to settle at 40,075.96. State Bank of Pakistan and Finance Ministry issued a joint statement indicating that the country’s funding needs will be more than fully covered in FY23, which brought some solace to investors, according to a report from Capital Stake. The optimism was short-lived. EP Systems, a subsidiary of Systems Limited, has obtained $11m in funding for Pakistani fintech OneLoad, according to a PSX filing. Additionally, the Pakistani rupee maintained its upward trend versus the US dollar on Monday, rising by Re0.53 or 0.22pc to Rs238.84. Financial services (31.60 points) and insurance (55.63 points) also contributed to the KSE 100’s downturn (12.04 points). A total of 110.42m shares were traded on the all-share index on Monday, down from 170.27m on Friday. Like the value of shares traded, which had dropped to Rs6.31b in the previous session, it fell to Rs3.72b this time around. TRG Pak Limited came in second with 9.21m shares, and WorldCall Telecom came in third with 8.63m shares. 101 stocks rose, 182 dipped and 26 remained steady during Monday’s trading session of 309 businesses.