KARACHI: Stocks rose on Wednesday on hopes that the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) delayed loan programme will be restarted soon, as the government has finally chosen to put its shoulder to the wheel to get it rolling as the economy approaches collapse.
The benchmark KSE-100 Shares Index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) rose 729.25 points, or 1.87%, to end at 39,784.90 points.
“The market is rising on anticipation of an IMF settlement and the resolution of the gas circular debt,” said Samiullah Tariq, Head of Research at Pakistan-Kuwait Investment Company.
According to capital market specialist Saad Ali, the PSX is performing strongly due to the optimism surrounding the IMF following Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s announcement that the government is “ready to do whatever” to restart the programme.
The administration notified the Fund a day earlier that it “wants to finish the programme for ninth review,” despite the country’s urgent need for $10 billion in foreign loans for the remainder of the current fiscal year to avoid default.
“The international lender has stated unequivocally that it stands with Pakistan,” the prime minister reported the IMF as saying.
He went on to say that the government notified the IMF that it wanted to finalise the conditions through discussions as soon as possible so that Pakistan could move forward.
