Pakistan Stock Market surges 961 points

KARACHI: The benchmark KSE-100 Share Index Wednesday surged 970 points closing at above 80,461 points because of positive developments like falling interest rates and new IMF program of US$7 billion.

The KSE-100 index climbed 1,096 points to 80,522.26 points from the previous close of 79,491.13 points.

The market analysts claimed that investor sentiment was being driven by “expectations of the IMF Executive Board’s approval of the $7 billion EFF, coupled with improvements in key economic fundamentals including the State Bank discount rates.

“A few stocks seeing passive selling due to FTSE’s downgrade of Pakistan to Frontier Market status have also seen their complete supply being absorbed,” analyst added.

Pakistan recorded monthly IT exports of $298 million, up by 27 per cent YoY and by 4 per cent MoM in August 2024. These monthly IT exports in Aug-2024 are higher than last 12-month average of $275 million.

The State Bank of Pakistan has also released a data of current account for August 2024. During the month of August, the current account remained 75 million in surplus, which was $161 in deficit in the same period last year.

Total current account deficit of the country stand at $171 million in last two months of the current fiscal year. Earlier in the same period, it was stood at $939 million. The reason behind this surge was the rising workers’ remittances in July August 2024-25.

The IMF had earlier confirmed that the Fund’s Executive board will meet on Sept 25 to discuss the loan facility for Pakistan.

On Jul 03, 2024, FTSE Russell announced reclassification of Pakistan from Secondary Emerging to Frontier Market status. The changes will be effective after the close of business on Friday, Sep 20, 2024.

“There has been uncertainty over the expected quantum of selling by a fund following FTSE as benchmark, namely Vanguard due the above mentioned development,” the Topline Securities said.