Pakistan stocks surrendered their earlier gains at close on Wednesday amid final-hour profit-taking as the benchmark KSE-100 index settled on a flat note.
During the trading session, bulls made a comeback at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) driven by energy and banking stocks, which propelled the benchmark index to an intra-day high of 66,150.95.
However, investors resorted to profit-taking in the final part of the trading session, and the index settled at 65,656.62, an overall decrease of 69.42 points or 0.11%.
Experts said investors remained cautious awaiting developments as the new government prepared to initiate discussions for the final International Monetary Fund (IMF) review.
As per reports, Pakistan is expected to commence talks with the international lender from next week.
“The market keenly awaits on who will be the next finance minister of the country as Pakistan begins talks with the IMF,” Sana Tawfik, an analyst at Arif Habib Limited (AHL), told Business Recorder earlier during the trading session.
Pakistan urgently also needs a fresh IMF agreement to shore up its struggling $350 billion economy which is suffering from high inflation, low reserve and high external financing needs.
As per reports, interim finance minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar is a strong contender for the important finance minister post.
Meanwhile, in a key development, Muhammad Aurangzeb, the chief executive officer of Pakistan’s largest bank, HBL, is likely to be tapped for a top position in the finance team of newly elected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Aurangzeb, currently the CEO of HBL, is likely to be appointed Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Finance, two sources said - one in the finance ministry and the other with direct knowledge of discussions.
A final decision is yet to be taken. Sharif has to pick a cabinet after being sworn in on Monday - most importantly a finance team, with Pakistan’s current $3 billion, nine-month IMF programme expiring next month.
On Tuesday, selling pressure was also seen at the PSX as the KSE-100 ended a volatile trading session at 65,726.04, down by 225.68 points or 0.34%.
Globally, Asian equities eased on Wednesday in cautious trading, with Chinese stocks slipping as the lack of big stimulus measures from Beijing disappointed some investors, while gold and bitcoin eased after hitting record highs.
Traders are hesitant to place major bets ahead of congressional testimony from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that will be parsed to gauge if the US central bank is ready to start cutting rates.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.21% lower.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee recorded a marginal decline against the US dollar, depreciating 0.01% in the inter-bank market on Wednesday. At close, the local unit settled at 279.35, a loss of Re0.04, against the greenback, as per the State Bank of Pakistan.
Volume on the all-share index increased to 419.74 million from 396.59 million a session ago.
The value of shares rose to Rs18.3 billion from Rs16.59 billion in the previous session.
Cnergyico PK was the volume leader with 30.68 million shares, followed by P.I.A.C.(A) with 28.09 million shares, and Pak Refinery with 28.04 million shares.
Shares of 354 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 163 registered an increase, 172 recorded a fall, while 19 remained unchanged.
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