KARACHI (Reuters) - The stocks closed down on Thursday in thin trading as investors awaited the announcement of the August and September monetary policy, due to be unveiled on Friday, dealers said. The KSEs benchmark 100-share index, fell 0.09 percent, or 9.01 points, to end at 10,427.28 points. Volume was 63.35 million shares, compared with 93.86 million shares traded on Wednesday. Most investors are cautious right now ahead of the monetary policy, said Ahfaz Mustafa, managing director at Ismail Iqbal Securities Ltd. A Reuters poll found 12 of 15 analysts expected the central bank to keep its policy rate unchanged at 12.5 percent when it sets monetary policy in a meeting on July 30. But further tightening could be coming when the central bank meets next in September. However three analysts expected the central bank to raise its key policy rate by 50 basis points because of a widening fiscal deficit. APP: Meanwhile, the Lahore stock market on Thursday witnessed bearish trend as the LSE-25 Index lost 12.78 points to close at 3357.35 points as compared to 3370.13 points on Wednesday. In all 117 companies transacted, of which 21 improved their rates, 39 lost their worth, while rates of 57 companies remained unchanged. Total turnover also decreased to 3.427 million shares as against 4.294m shares showing a difference of 0.867 million shares. Dawood Hercules Chemical Limited emerged as major gainer of the day with an increase of Rs 8.67 in its share price to close at Rs 182.75. Lucky Cement Limited remained major loser of the day by decreasing Rs 1.59 in its share price to close at Rs 69.35 per share. Bank Al-Falah appeared as volume leader of the day with 0.532m shares, followed by the NBP Ltd with 0.442m shares and Arif Habib Securities Ltd with 0.432m shares.