Stock market turns tide after a shaky start

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) opened the day at 93,224.56 points, but soon lost ground posting 280 points losses early in trading. By 11 AM, the benchmark KSE-100 index touched the lowest of the morning around 92,943.07 points.

However, soon after the index turned the tide and by the afternoon, it had gained over 560 points to hover at 93,786.39 points. For the past several sessions, the stock market has been achieving historic milestones, on the back of improving economic indicators.

Analysts have attributed the bullish movement primarily to the improved foreign sentiment after MSCI added more Pakistani companies to the frontier markets index, as well as improved inflow of local institutional funds due to central bank’s policy rate decline. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced 250 basis points (bps) decline, from 15.5 per cent to 15 per cent in the latest monetary policy update.

Rising remittances have also played a part in offering economic strength and thereby improving the overall market sentiment.

Also read: Intraday trade: PKR up by 10 paisa against USD