ISLAMABAD: Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Monday appreciated the strong performance of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) and congratulated it on being named the best performing market in Asia.
The advisor was speaking at PSX gong ceremony to mark the successful book-building and listing of Power Holding Limited’s (PHL’s) Pakistan Energy Sukuk-II (PES-II) worth Rs200 billion, according to a press statement issued by the Finance Ministry.
He also congratulated the team on bringing the Sukuk issuance to fruition, saying that the performance of the stock exchange was particularly creditable considering the recent challenges faced by Pakistan and Karachi.
“I congratulate all the market participants and transaction leads who made the listing of PES-II a success,” he said, terming the listing as an excellent team effort of Ministry of Finance Debt Office, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and PSX.
Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said that for the first time, the government raised Rs200 billion through Sukuk at 10 basis points (bps) less than Karachi Interbank Offer Rate (KIBOR), through competitive book-building at PSX, saving Rs 18 billion over 10 years of debt servicing.
KIBOR is a daily reference rate based on the interest rates at which banks offer to lend unsecured funds to other banks in Karachi wholesale (or interbank) money market.
