Buying spree continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as investor concerns over the possibility of a mini-budget subsided with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining over 750 points during the first half of the trading session on Friday.
At 12pm, the benchmark index was hovering at 94,968.36, an increase of 776.47 points or 0.82%.
Buying was observed in key sectors including cement, commercial banks, power generation and OMCs. Index-heavy stocks including HUBCO, KE, PSO, PPL, MEBL and FAYSAL traded in the green.
Experts said the upward momentum can be attributed to growing economic optimism, bolstered by recent reports indicating that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised no concerns regarding Pakistan’s progress in meeting revenue collection targets.
An IMF delegation, led by its mission chief Nathan Porter, is in Pakistan for a staff visit to discuss recent developments and the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme performance to date.
In a key development, Minister of State for Finance and Revenue, Ali Pervaiz Malik said on Thursday that it would be premature to comment whether mini-budget was imminent or not.
On Thursday, PSX achieved another historic milestone and hit the highest-ever level with extremely high trading activities on the back of aggressive buying, mainly by local investors coupled with institutional support.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index surged by 836.47 points or 0.90% and crossed 94,000 psychological level to close at its highest-ever level of 94,191.89 points.
Globally, Asian markets were mixed on Friday after Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell tempered expectations for interest rate cuts, while traders also contemplated a hawkish Trump presidency.
The tepid performance followed a negative lead from Wall Street and came at the end of a painful week for equities fuelled by worries about another disruptive China-US trade war.
The dollar, however, held gains against its peers and pushed higher versus the yen after data showing a slowdown in Japanese economic growth, which could dampen expectations for more rate hikes by Tokyo.
Fed chief Powell on Thursday played up the performance of the world’s top economy and policymakers’ progress in bringing inflation down towards their two percent target.
That had allowed officials to start lowering borrowing costs in September, with a follow-up last week.
This is an intra-day update
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