LAHORE MIRROR (Monitoring Desk)– Bears were in firm control of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday as the benchmark KSE-100 index shed more than 1,300 points in intraday trading, while dollar continued its flight towards record levels against rupee.
According to PSX website, KSE-100 Index opened at 44,840.81 points, made a high of 44,841.41 points before going down rapidly. The bourse took brief corrections but eventually continued with its downward trajectory and sank to 43,506.34 a little before 1pm, which represented an intraday decline of 1335.07 points.
Raza Jafri, head of Equities at Intermarket Securities, said the market was under pressure because of the depletion of foreign reserves and delay in the resumption of the International Monetary Funds programme (IMF) among other factors.
“The government has seemingly, so far, drawn a blank when it comes to securing funds from friendly countries. The pressure in global equity markets is also hurting sentiment,” he explained, cautioning that in the near future the market would track progress on the foreign reserves, hence, positive developments on this front could help halt the slide.
Khurram Shehzad, CEO of Alfalah B-Tech, shared a similar opinion.
“No development on funding from Saudi Arabia, UAE and the IMF has worried investors,” he said, adding that the Shehbaz government’s reluctance in passing on the petrol subsidy could also be one of the reasons for the “PSX bloodbath”.
SOURCE: DAWN.COM
