PSX morning update: over 1000 point initial surge

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 witnessed a surge at opening this morning, gaining 1007.18 points by 9:40AM, showing a significant recovery after yesterday’s decline.

After last night’s close of 47,808.34, this is a substantial boost, as the market currently trades at 48,815.52 points. The promising trading day has already seen 23,048 trades.

After this initial surge, the market began to settle back down, hovering at around 48,604.43 points at 9:52AM.

There is continued interest for index-heavy PPL, OGDC, HBL, and HUBC. A positive change of 1.68, 2.27, 2.43, and 2.31 respectively was seen.

Despite this morning’s initial surge, a host of factors are creating uncertainty in the market, including the yet to be confirmed caretaker set-up. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) stated yesterday 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 International Monetary Fund.

The Pakistani Rupee, meanwhile, has marginally weakened, with a 0.05 per cent depreciation in the interbank. It is currently settled at 287.60.

See: Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves decrease by $32 million