KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) this month is going to launch a new trading system acquired from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE), the burse’s chief executive has said.
The SZSE is one of China’s three stock exchanges — along with Shanghai Stock Exchange, and China Financial Futures Exchange — that hold a 40 percent stake in the PSX.
The PSX signed a $5 million contract with SZSE in November 2019 for the acquisition of Trading and Surveillance System to improve its operational and technological level. It was first scheduled to be implemented in March 2021.
“We expect to launch within the month of October. There were certain requirements that our stakeholders had requested to accommodate in the trading system which now have been implemented,” PSX chief executive Farrukh H. Khan told Arab News earlier this week.
The system is expected to make the PSX more transparent and attractive.
“The system will vastly improve the capabilities of our trading and abilities to introduce new products like options,” Khan said. “We’ll have a proper surveillance system and the robustness of the much better system.”
The bourse’s benchmark KSE 100 index dropped 25.61 percent in April 2020 and touched the year’s lowest 27,228.80 level. The index recouped some of the losses in later months.
Pakistan’s bourse was declared Asia’s best stock market and the world’s fourth best performing market in 2020 by Market Currents, a New York-based financial markets research firm.
However, last month Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) downgraded PSX from its Emerging Market Index (EMI) to Frontier Markets Index (FMI), following a continuous drop in share prices of its listed companies.
In 2017, benchmark KSE 100 had peaked to 53,000 points level with market capitalization of $100 billion. However, market capitalization has dropped over the years to $45 billion including 17 percent decline in last four months.
“This (downgrading) was mainly due to the size of the market capitalization which has declined,” Khan said. “Rising oil prices, which doubled in recent days, Afghanistan’s situation, interest rate hike and rupee remained under pressure and MSCI reclassification generally has created negative impacts in equity market.”
“Pakistan’s stock market has given average 19 percent return in dollar terms during last 20 years,” Khan said.
Pakistan’s stock market recorded growth earnings of 60 percent last year.
This Friday, the PSX KSE 100 closing level was 44,821.53.
Pakistan Stock Exchange to launch new trading system this month
https://arab.news/83mbf
Pakistan Stock Exchange to launch new trading system this month
- PSX acquired trading and surveillance system from Shenzhen Stock Exchange
- Pakistan stock market’s capitalization has dropped from $100 billion in 2017 to $45 billion
EU, Pakistan sign €60 million loan agreement for clean drinking water in Karachi
- Project will finance rehabilitation, construction of water treatment facilities in Karachi city, says European Investment Bank
- As per a report in 2023, 90 percent of water samples collected from various places in city was deemed unfit for drinking
ISLAMABAD: The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Pakistan’s government on Wednesday signed a €60 million loan agreement, the first between the two sides in a decade, to support the delivery of clean drinking water in Karachi, the EU said in a statement.
The Karachi Water Infrastructure Framework, approved in August this year by the EIB, will finance the rehabilitation and construction of water treatment facilities in Pakistan’s most populous city of Karachi to increase safe water supply and improve water security.
The agreement was signed between the two sides at the sidelines of the 15th Pak-EU Joint Commission in Brussels, state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported.
“Today, the @EIB signed its first loan agreement with Pakistan in a decade: a €60 million loan supporting the delivery of clean drinking water for #Karachi,” the EU said on social media platform X.
Radio Pakistan said the agreement reflects Pakistan’s commitment to modernize essential urban services and promote climate-resilient infrastructure.
“The declaration demonstrates the continued momentum in Pakistan-EU cooperation and highlights shared priorities in sustainable development, public service delivery, and climate and environmental resilience,” it said.
Karachi has a chronic clean drinking water problem. As per a Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KWSC) study conducted in 2023, 90 percent of water from samples collected from various places in the city was deemed unsafe for drinking purposes, contaminated with E. coli, coliform bacteria, and other harmful pathogens.
The problem has forced most residents of the city to get their water through drilled motor-operated wells (known as ‘bores’), even as groundwater in the coastal city tends to be salty and unfit for human consumption.
Other options for residents include either buying unfiltered water from private water tanker operators, who fill up at a network of legal and illegal water hydrants across the city, or buying it from reverse osmosis plants that they visit to fill up bottles or have delivered to their homes.
The EU provides Pakistan about €100 million annually in grants for development and cooperation. This includes efforts to achieve green inclusive growth, increase education and employment skills, promote good governance, human rights, rule of law and ensure sustainable management of natural resources.
