KARACHI, July 24 (Reuters) - Pakistani stocks fell on Friday, following the three-week postponement of an interest rate review meeting by the central back, which dealers said raised doubts regarding an imminent rate cut. The State Bank of Pakistan said on Friday it was delaying the the announcement of its monetary policy for the July-September quarter to Aug. 15 from July 25, but did not give any reason for the delay.
"This is very bad timing on the part of the central bank. It has created doubts in the minds of investors and so the market reacted negatively," said Ashraf Zakaria, a dealer at brokers Ali Hussain Rajabli and Co.
The Karachi Stock Exchange's (KSE) benchmark 100-share index ended down 1.02 percent, or 80.47 points, at 7,783.39 after touching an intra-day high of 7,897.15.
Turnover was 138 million shares, compared with Thursday's 162 million.
The index was trading higher in the morning, before the central bank announcement triggered the slide.
The central bank was widely expected to slash its key interest rate by 150 basis points in Saturday's policy review, to 12.5 percent, taking account of falling inflation and the need to help the economy bounce back from recession.
While dealers said the delay was not necessarily a bad thing for markets in the long run, it did have an immediate negative impact.
"The expectations regarding the monetary policy are still positive, though any cut less than 150 basis points can dampen the sentiment," said Zakaria.
Dealers said the security regulator's approval of the resumption of futures contracts in selected stocks a day earlier kept the index's slide in check.
The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) approved 18 stocks for trading in the deliverable futures contract market from August.
In the currency market, the rupee eased to 82.33/39 to the dollar from the previous day's close of 82.22/32, on slightly higher dollar demand from importers, but dealers expect the local unit to hold steady near-term. (Reporting by Faisal Aziz)