Pakistan’s forex reserves decline, says latest report by State Bank of Pakistan

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has reported a decrease in overall foreign exchange reserves on a week over week basis.

As per the latest reports by the central bank, the forex reserves held by the SBP have increased by $21 million to close at $11.22 billion by last Friday.

PSX’s first IPO of 2025, Zarea Limited (ZAL), to begin trading today

However, the proportion of the foreign exchange reserves with the commercial banks showed decline of $40 million to clock in at $4.70 billion.

In net effect, the country’s total foreign exchange reserves have decreased by $20 million to clock in at $15,925.7 million ($15.93 billion) for the week ending February 21, 2025, the SBP said.

STOCK MARKET JUMPS, AS NEW IPO LISTED

In another news, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) has shown growing trend reaching 113,971.95 points by Jummah break. The benchmark KSE-100 index opened at Thursday’s closing of 113,784.30 points, and touched the morning’s highest at 114,265.97 points, before settling in at 187.76 points gains by the midday break.

KSE-100 index surpasses 114,000 mark in early trade

A push for the stock market came from the listing of the first initial public offering (IPO) for the calendar year 2025. Earlier in February, the B2B platform Zarea Limited raised Rs1.03 billion for 62.5 million shares. Today the company goes live for trading with the symbol ZAL on the main board of the PSX.