May 25, 2022 (MLN): Ongoing economic glitches and raising political temperature have created enough panic amongst market participants as the KSE-100 index has lost over 490 points [11:20 PST] in intraday trade and was trading at 41,485.67 points.
At the same time, the Pakistani rupee (PKR) has lost a further 79 pasia in the intraday trade against the greenback compared to the previous close of PKR 201.41 per USD as the rupee was quoted at 202.15/202.65 with trades reported at 202.20.
Within the open market, PKR is trading at 202/203 per USD.
Given the bleak situation, both interbank and equity markets are missing the element of stability due to the indecisiveness of government pertaining to tough economic decisions.
According to the experts, this along with political instability has become the major hurdle in the way of availing funds from IMF and friendly countries.
Pakistan's side is still in talks with the IMF in Doha for the resumption of the $6bn EFF program. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is finalizing the extension of the kingdom's $3 billion deposit to Pakistan.
Though this news is encouraging, but not enough to prop up PKR because the exchequer needs cash support, Asad Rizvi, the former Treasury Head at Chase Manhattan said.
Similarly, IMF, Chinese & other funds are in pipeline, but the hammering of the Rupee has not stopped, he added.
Within the equity market, fertilizers, commercial banks, oil & gas exploration, cement, and technology have witnessed higher selling activity as they have lost around 153, 60.51, 60, 38, and 37 points respectively.
Company-wise, the scrips of EFERT, FFC, ENGRO, SYS, OGDC, HUBC, EPCL, and LUCK have endured the maximum losses.
