KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) surpassed 57,000 points to record an impressive surge on Thursday, with the rupee also gaining in value a day after Islamabad reached a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The PSX website said the KSE-100 index closed at 57,397.02 points after trading ended on Thursday, up by 716.96 or 1.26 percent from the previous close of 56,680 points.
The development took place a day after the IMF’s first review of a $3 billion standby agreement (SBA) it signed with Pakistan in June was completed successfully. As per the agreement, the global lender will disburse $700 million to Pakistan as the second tranche of the $3 billion bailout package.
“The market has indeed performed extremely well in the last few months,” Farrukh Khan, PSX’s managing director, told Arab News. “And the basic reasons are the hard decisions taken by the caretaker government to create economic stability.”
Pakistan’s rupee gained by Rs0.76 against the dollar in the interbank market at the close of the session on Thursday, the central bank reported. This was the first gain made by the rupee after recording consecutive losses in 17 sessions.
Khan said there is “ample domestic liquidity” in the market, adding that foreign investor flows have turned from negative to positive.
“And also, there is a perception by analysts and investors, not just in Pakistan but also globally, that interest rates are picking off,” he said.
Khan congratulated the government on the successful IMF review.
“So that is also fueling the positive sentiment in the market today,” he said.
