KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed massive selling pressure, attributing it to delays in the completion of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) ninth review and rising political uncertainty as the benchmark KSE-100 Index was down 557.86 points or 1.3 percent during trading on Thursday.
The index opened positive and went close to the 42,000 level before selling pressure took over. The benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 41,179.76 points, down 557.86 points or 1.34 per cent.
Across-the-board pressure was witnessed with index-heavy sectors including commercial banks, automobiles, cement and chemicals trading in losses.
Experts attribute the renewed pressure on the stock market to a combination of international and domestic developments.
Pakistan entered a $6 billion IMF program in 2019, which was increased to $7bn earlier this year. The program’s ninth review is currently pending with remote talks being held between IMF officials and the government for the release of $1.18bn.
Pakistan and IMF had a round of engagement on November 18 but could not finalize a schedule for formal talks on the overdue ninth review.
The talks, originally due in the last week of October, were rescheduled to Nov 3 and then kept on facing delays following gaps in estimates by the two sides.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday said that he will announce the date of dissolution of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies on December 17.
Addressing a press conference in Lahore after meeting the party leadership and other allies, the former premier said that he will make the announcement at PTI’s public gathering at Lahore’s iconic Liberty Chowk.
“Markets would remain would under pressure till December 17,” experts said.
Sectors driving the benchmark KSE-100 in the red included, banking (178.37 points), oil and gas exploration (104.94 points) and technology and communication (67.18 points).
Volume on the all-share index increased to 245 million from 146.7 million on Wednesday. The value of shares traded increased to Rs7.59 billion from Rs3.91 billion recorded in the previous session.
Bank Alfalah Limited was the volume leader with 41.70 million shares, followed by WorldCall Telecom with 18.58 million shares, and K-Electric Limited with 10.05 million shares
Shares of 330 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 67 registered an increase, 249 recorded a fall, and 14 remained unchanged.
