ISLAMABAD: The benchmark KSE-100 index rose 317.68 points, or 0.76 percent, to trade at 42,173.99 points at 10:30 am on Monday.
Analysts said that the stock market start the week on a positive note in wake of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s statement earlier that Pakistan was expecting $13 billion in finances from China and Saudi Arabia, which would improve Pakistan’s balance of payments position.
Head of equities at Intermarket Securities, Raza Jafri, however, said that the gain was temporary because political developments loomed large in the background.
He was referring to the PTI’s long march to Islamabad, which will resume on Tuesday (tomorrow) after being suspended last week following an assassination attempt on Imran Khan.
Salman Naqvi, the head of research at Aba Ali Habib Securities said that in addition to China and Saudi Arabia, Pakistan also received “good support” from nations like Qatar.
Amir Shehzad, Director of First National Equities Limited, said that the political climate, which had risen following Thursday’s attack on Imran, had “cooled down a bit and as a result, investors’ confidence returned.
He said: “Hopefully, things will stay under control and the market should perform better from this point on.” On Friday, the index had collapsed as soon as the bell had rung, and it had continued to lose ground all day. Investors shied away from the equity market as a result of the escalating political unrest following the attack on Imran, and volume across the board decreased.
