PSX marginal increase after Independence Day

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 this morning saw a gradual start, seeing marginal gains of only 108.59 points or 0.22 per cent at 9:34AM.

At 9:38AM, it was in decline, when it witnessed a 20.95 point or 0.04 per cent decrease, at the onset of trading.

It picked back up after this and the index gained a marginal 46.80 points or 0.1 per cent by 10:48AM.

After Friday’s close of 48,424.40 points, and an extended weekend including the public Independence Day holiday during which no trading took place, the market currently hovers at 48,471.20 points.

In an interview with Business Recorder, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Jameel Ahmad said that global economic conditions are largely contributing to higher inflation in Pakistan.

He said the world economy remains under pressure which impacts Pakistan’s inflation rate, and that this is further aggravated by floods and natural disasters, as well as the delays in review by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Despite efforts to combat the country’s economic crisis a host of factors are creating uncertainty in the market. The SBP announced last week that the nation’s foreign reserves have sunk by $32 million.

The SBP also projected that the current account deficit, which measures the flow of goods, services and investments into and out of the country, will widen to 2-3% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023 from 0.6% in 2022.

The country still faces a large external financing gap and has to repay about $10.6 billion in debt and interest payments in the fiscal year 2023, which started on July 1, according to the IMF.

Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves decrease by $32 million