Moody’s Investor Services (Moody’s), a global credit ratings agency, said timely announcement of election results would reduce political uncertainty in Pakistan.

“A timely announcement of the results, leading to a smooth formation of a new government will reduce policy and political uncertainty,” Bloomberg quoted Grace Lim, Analyst, Moody’s Investors Service in Singapore, as saying on Friday.

“This is crucial for the country that is facing very challenging macroeconomic conditions, with fragile balance of payments, weak growth and high inflation.”

On Thursday, Pakistan conducted General Elections 2024 that remained generally peaceful but questions over the credibility of this electoral exercise continued to persist in the absence of mainstream political force Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and a delay in the election results issuance.

As per preliminary and unofficial results, PTI-backed independent candidates were ahead of their rival candidates in several NA seats on Friday.

Following uncertainty regarding the poll results, Pakistan’s dollar-denominated government bonds slipped by as much as 2 cents on Friday.

The South Asian country is struggling to recover from an economic crisis while it grapples with rising militant violence in a deeply polarised political environment. Most of its sovereign dollar bonds slipped, with the September 2025 bond dropping to 85 cents on the dollar, according to Tradeweb data.

Meanwhile, the benchmark KSE-100 index lost over 2,000 points before making some inroads during the post-election trading session on Friday.

During the opening minutes of trading, the benchmark index plunged to a low of 61,781.76, a decrease of 2,362.11 points or 3.8%.