Bullish sentiments dominated the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Wednesday, driven by optimism surrounding the potential approval of Pakistan’s $7-billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and strong corporate earnings.
The KSE-100 started the session with a strong buying spree that continued in the most part of the day, before late-session selling trimmed some gains.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 78,260.86, up by 515.34 points or 0.66%.
“The equity market ended on a positive note today, recovering some losses from previous sessions. However, investors are still looking for a significant catalyst, particularly positive news from the IMF front,” brokerage house Ismail Iqbal Securities said in its post-market report.
The positive run on Wednesday was driven by a surge in the fertiliser and banking sectors, with heavyweights NBP, FFC, UBL, EFERT, and HMB fuelling a notable 249-point boost, Topline Securities said.
In a key development, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Wednesday that the government is making progress with the IMF and expects to secure approval from its Executive Board on the $7-billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) next month.
“We are making good progress with IMF to secure Board approval during September,” he told Business Recorder via message.
His statement comes after it was widely expected that Pakistan’s agenda would be taken up by the IMF Executive Board during August. However, Pakistan’s name was not included on the Executive Board’s schedule for this month, raising concerns about the timeline for the disbursement of the loan.
On Tuesday, the PSX benchmark KSE-100 Index closed marginally lower in a volatile session to settle at 77,745.52, down by 84.82 points or 0.11%.
Globally, Asian shares slipped on Wednesday as a stellar rebound in world stocks paused for breath, while bond yields and the dollar fell ahead of US economic data and speeches from policymakers that are expected to make the case for interest rate cuts.
The S&P 500 snapped eight sessions of gains with a 0.2% overnight drop.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.6%.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is due to make a speech at the Jackson Hole symposium in Wyoming on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee registered a minor fall against the US dollar, depreciating 0.06% in the inter-bank market on Wednesday. At close, the currency settled at 278.52, a loss of Re0.18 against the US dollar.
Volume on the all-share index jumped to 552.56 million from 380.72 million on Tuesday.
The value of shares also increased to Rs14.59 billion from Rs11.24 billion in the previous session.
Kohinoor Spinning was the volume leader with 62.92 million shares, followed by Power Cement with 41.96 million shares, and Yousuf Weaving with 37.37 million shares.
Shares of 453 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 289 registered an increase, 119 recorded a fall, while 45 remained unchanged.
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