KARACHI, July 2(ABC): The bulls staged a comeback at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) after a week of bearish trade as the benchmark KSE-100 finished the last week of FY22 with a gain of 579 points or 1.41% to settle at 41,630 points.
Interest in selected stocks kept the market buoyant as sector-specific developments spurred buying interest. The index maintained an upwards momentum on the back of the approval of the federal budget for the fiscal year 2022-23. The market finished three of the five sessions in the green.
This week the market commenced on a positive note due to the inflows worth $2.3 billion received from China, which took the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reserves to $10 billion. Resultantly, the Pakistani rupee strengthened against the greenback settling at Rs204.85 on June 30.
Moreover, Pakistan received a Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) from IMF, which signalled that the government is inching closer to an agreement with the global lender.
In addition, the National Assembly approved the amendments made in the Finance Bill 2022 which brought clarity to the market, especially to the banking sector.
Furthermore, the independent power producers of the 2002 power policy received the second instalment of Rs96 billion. However, the sentiment was adversely affected by the fiscal measures undertaken by the government (including price hike in petrol and hi-speed diesel by Rs14.85 per litre and Rs13.23 per litre, respectively) to solidify ground for approval of the seventh and eighth reviews.