The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) opened on a bullish note Wednesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index surging over 1,300 points in early trade, fuelled by renewed investor confidence following the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) staff-level agreement with Pakistan.
By 9:20 am, the index was trading at 117,935.80 points, up 1,302.64 points or 1.12%, as across-the-board buying was observed in key sectors such as automobile assemblers, cement, chemicals, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration, and power generation. Index-heavy stocks, including OGDC, MARI, PPL, HUBCO, PSO, SNGPL, and SSGC, traded in the green.
At the closing bell, the KSE-100 index stood at 117,772 points, a whopping 1139 points above the previous day’s close.
“Market opened up 1,300 points (1.1%) after IMF staff agreement,” noted Mohammed Sohail, CEO of Topline Securities.
The surge comes after the IMF on Tuesday announced a staff-level agreement with Pakistan on a new $1.3 billion climate resilience loan spanning 28 months. Additionally, Islamabad secured approval for the first review of its ongoing 37-month, $7 billion bailout programme. Pending final approval from the IMF’s Executive Board, the deal will unlock a total of $2 billion in disbursements.
The announcement follows an IMF mission to Pakistan from February 24 to March 14, during which extensive discussions were held with economic policymakers in Karachi and Islamabad.
Despite the optimism, Tuesday’s trading session at the PSX remained volatile, with the index recovering slightly to close at 116,633.17 points.
The PSX’s performance will continue to hinge on global market cues and further developments on Pakistan’s economic front, particularly IMF-related disbursements and fiscal reforms.
