FINALLY, there is some good news on the economic front. After witnessing a prolonged period of downslide spanning over almost two years, Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday witnessed a bullish trend with the benchmark KSE-100 index gaining 912 points to close at 2.9 per cent. The benchmark index closed at 31,884 points after hovering in the green throughout the day. As many as 176 million shares of indexed companies changed hands during the session and the market value of the shares traded clocked in at Rs.6.9 billion.
Market analysts are expecting a positive momentum at the bourse in the days to come. This indeed is a positive development and reflects that the trust and confidence of the investors is slowly but surely returning to the Pakistani market. The news that the country’s current account deficit narrowed a significant seventy three percent to $579 million in July, the first month of current fiscal year, definitely has contributed significantly to generate positive sentiments in the stock market. The massive reduction in the deficit itself is a big development that has been received positively by the businessmen and investors. Present government certainly has shown the seriousness to implement its economic reforms agenda to steer the country out of chronic economic problems. Undoubtedly PTI assumed the power in the most difficult economic situation with burgeoning current account deficit because of which it also has to knock at the doors of friendly countries to save the country from default. But then it took the most unpopular but important decisions, which nobody dared in the past. These have now started bearing fruit and one can expect that the days ahead would not only see positive sentiments staying in the stock market but also overall economy returning to genuine stability. To trigger economic activity, it is important that the government also pace up releases for the development projects as it will also create job opportunities. Then as for the stock market, the government should go ahead with its promised twenty billion-rupee market support fund as it will help further bolster the confidence of the investors. We have before us the precedent of 2008 when such a support fund, in fact, proved very beneficial for the national kitty itself. Investors should be fully facilitated by all possible means and then it is also time for both domestic and foreign buyers to invest in the market as in our view it is the correct buying point to gain maximum.
