Opening Bell: KSE-100 drops 650 points due to govt’s incoherence

May 16, 2019 (MLN): The KSE 100 index has plunged below the 34,000 mark by losing 650 points during the early hours of the session, and is trading at 33,641 points as of now. The bourse is suffering on the back of massive devaluation of Rs. 4.6 in local currency witnessed in the initial hours of interbank market.

Moreover, unfavorable economic numbers also led to reversion of KSE-100 index into the red district. These included increase in Pakistan’s external debt by USD 6.755 Billion between Jan – March 2019, which took the country’s total debt liabilities to USD 105.841 billion, the highest level in the nation’s history.

In addition to that, the overall output of Large Scale Manufacturing Industries (LSMI) decreased by 2.93% for July-March, 2018-19 compared to July-March, 2017-18. Lastly, Pakistan’s trade deficit for the month of April 2019 worsened by 22.2 percent as compared to the previous month, due to increase in imports by 14.39%.

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