Friday morning brings downturn for PSX

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) opened Friday’s trading at Thursday’s closing of 119,153.04 points. Yesterday, the index crossed the 120,000 points limits for the second day in a row, reaching the intra-day high of 120,106.21 points, but lost out on these gains by closing time.

Friday brought jitters for the index as well, along with a decline of over 400 points early in the day. The benchmark KSE-100 index touched the morning’s low at 118,723.28 points, with 429 points decline. Some of these losses can be explained as simple market correction, after nearly 1,000 points gains achieved day before yesterday. Apart from that, the decline can be attributed to the selling pressures, motivated by the uncertainty about the upcoming budget.

While Pakistan has been achieving success with regards to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) conditions, there are still fears associated with the IMF-recommended taxes and rules for the next fiscal year. The cautious investor sentiment, both yesterday and today, can be traced back to these apprehensions.

Friday’s trading session shows similar movement, with fluctuations driving minor gains and losses. Around 10:30 AM, the KSE-100 index looked like this:

Meanwhile, the Pakistani Rupee continues to appreciate against the US Dollar, even though marginally. PKR improved parity against the USD by 9 paisa in the interbank market, clocking in at the exchange rate of Rs281.97 to the greenback.

Also read: Pakistan stocks close lower amid cautious sentiment ahead of budget