PSX scales new peak amid buzz about IMF loan tranche, economic gains
Business
KSE-100 index gained over 1,300 points during intraday trading and surpassed 119,000 mark
KARACHI (Dunya News) – The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) maintained its bullish trend on Thursday as it reached the all-time high amid optimism about reaching a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the next loan tranche of $1 billion.
The KSE-100 index gained 1,330.22 points and climbed to the new peak of 119,304.24 during intraday trading, witnessing a positive change of 1.13 percent.
A day earlier, the 100-Index also registered bullish trend, gaining 972.94 points and closing at 117,974.03 points.
A total of 544,200,130 shares worth Rs32.310 billion were traded during the day. As many as 315 companies transacted their shares in the stock market, 208 of them recorded gains and 102 sustained losses, whereas the share price of five companies remained unchanged.
NEGOTIATION WITH IMF
The bullish trend has been witnessed after the IMF team, led by Nathan Porter, and Pakistani authorities have made significant progress toward reaching a Staff Level Agreement (SLA) on the first review under the 37-month Extended Arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).
Porter had stated this in his end-of-mission statement as the delegation visited Islamabad and Karachi from Feb 24 to March 14, 2025, to hold discussions on the first review of Pakistan’s economic programme supported by EFF and on a possible new arrangement under the IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).
Also Read: Pakistan, IMF near staff level agreement for next loan tranche
“Program implementation has been strong, and the discussions have made considerable progress in several areas including the planned fiscal consolidation to durably reduce public debt, maintenance of sufficiently tight monetary policy to maintain low inflation, acceleration of cost-reducing reforms to improve energy sector viability, and implementation of Pakistan’s structural reform agenda to accelerate growth, while strengthening social protection and rebuilding health and education spending,” read the statement.
Porter said progress had also been made in discussions on the authorities’ climate reform agenda, which aims to reduce vulnerabilities from natural disasters-related risks, and accompanying reforms which could be supported under a possible arrangement under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).
