PSX witnesses a lacklustre day

KARACHI: Continuing yesterday’s trend, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) commenced the day on a negative note and witnessed a surge in midday, but the day ended at a loss of 91 points compared to yesterday.

Initially, the KSE 100 index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed bearish sentiment but in the later half market saw some positive momentum and made an intraday high at 78,335 levels, an increment of 250 points, according to Topline Securities.

However, the KSE 100 index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) could not sustain the positive trend and called the day at 77,993 levels, a loss of 91 points, down 0.12%. During the day, BAHL, HINOON, PKGS, MCB and HUBC contributed negatively by losing 104 points, cumulatively.

On the flip side, MARI, ENGRO & FFC saw some buying interest as they added 162 points. Over 636 million shares were traded today at the bourse, while total value landed at Rs16.2 billion. KOSM led the volume chart with the trading of over 124 million shares.

Meanwhile, in a positive development, Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded Pakistan’s long-term issuer rating from “Caa3” to “Caa2” with a stable outlook.

This upgrade follows Fitch Ratings’ decision in July to raise the country’s credit rating from “CCC” to “CCC+”.

Moody’s said that this upgrade reflects Pakistan’s improved macroeconomic conditions and moderately better government external positions from very weak levels.

“We have also upgraded the rating for the senior unsecured MTN programme to (P)Caa2 from (P)Caa3. Concurrently, the outlook for the Government of Pakistan has changed to positive from stable,” read the statement.

Accordingly, Pakistan’s default risk has been reduced to a level consistent with a Caa2 rating.

Earlier in July, Fitch Ratings had upgraded Pakistan’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘CCC+’ from ‘CCC’.

“The upgrade reflects greater certainty over the continued availability of external funding, in the context of Pakistan’s staff-level agreement (SLA) with the IMF on a new 37-month USD7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF),” Fitch company said in a statement.