The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed intense selling pressure on Wednesday as the benchmark KSE-100 index shed nearly 1,000 points during intraday trading, two days after it lost almost 1,500 points.
According to the PSX website, the KSE-100 Index opened at 43,504.36 points. By 1pm, it had slid nearly 1,000 points, or around 2.28 per cent, to 42,513.78 points.
Raza Jafri, head of Equities at Intermarket Securities, said urgent decisions were needed from the federal government. "The government has been dragging its feet so far which is eroding investors' confidence and leading to panic selling."
The market, he emphasised, needed the International Monetary Fund program to resume quickly to find a foothold. "If the programme continues to be delayed, buyers will continue to shy away," he added.
Meanwhile, First National Equities CEO Ali Malik blamed the political uncertainty for the slump in the market.
"The rate of return on fixed income has reached 14pc. If it expands, the market will recover faster from here. At present, our market is cheap in terms of profit in the whole region, but the confidence of investors is not high due to the domestic situation," he said.
Today's decline comes two days after the PSX witnessed a
meltdown during which the KSE-100 lost 1,447.67 points.
Share prices nosedived as investors expressed worries about the country’s debt repayment capacity amid depleting foreign exchange reserves.
Expert says government needs to take "urgent decisions", stresses immediate resumption of IMF programme.
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