Stocks at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) maintained their bullish trend on Wednesday after the Pakistani authorities managed to reach a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 settled at 65,731.79 with an increase of 229.2 points or 0.35%.
“Positive sentiments dominated the market following the announcement of a staff-level agreement between Pakistan and the IMF,” said Capital Stake in a report.
Earlier on Wednesday, the IMF team reached a staff-level agreement with the Pakistani authorities on the second and final review of Pakistan’s stabilisation program supported by the IMF’s $3 billion SBA approved in January 2024.
The agreement is subject to approval by the IMF’s Executive Board, upon which the remaining access under the SBA, $1.1 billion, will become available.
As per the IMF statement, the authorities also expressed interest in a successor medium-term Fund-supported programme to permanently resolve Pakistan’s fiscal and external sustainability weaknesses, strengthening its economic recovery, and laying the foundations for strong, sustainable, and inclusive growth.
On Tuesday, stocks rebounded at the PSX following the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) decision to keep the interest rate unchanged, lending clarity to the market, as the benchmark KSE-100 gained nearly 1% to settle at 65,502.60, an increase of 612.09 points.
Internationally, Asian shares were hesitant on Wednesday on concerns the Federal Reserve could signal a slower path of rate cuts this year, while the yen plumbed a fresh four-month low on expectations that policy in Japan will remain accommodative for a while longer.
Tokyo’s Nikkei is closed for a holiday in Japan, but the yen’s weakness lifted Nikkei futures by 0.6%, a day after the Bank of Japan ended years of negative interest rates in a well-telegraphed move.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eked out a gain of 0.2%.
Meanwhile, the rupee registered marginal gains against the US dollar in the inter-bank market on Wednesday. At close, the local unit settled at 278.41, up by Re0.23 against the greenback, as per the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
Volume on the all-share index increased to 341.84 million from 323.28 million a session ago.
However, the value of shares declined to Rs11.84 billion from Rs17.06 billion in the previous session.
Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 45 million shares, followed by WorldCall Telecom with 34.43 million shares, and The Organic Meat with 17.99 million shares.
Shares of 342 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 173 registered an increase, 146 recorded a fall, while 23 remained unchanged.