April 17, 2020 (MLN): The KSE-100 index gained 1544 points since the start of the session and was trading at 32,874 points when trading at the Pakistan Stock Exchange was suspended.
The KSE-30 index was up by 5.31 percent which triggered a market halt, with trading being suspended for 1 hour. Previously, the market has been halted 8 times after the KSE-30 breached its lower limits, however, this is the first instance of the market being halted for a positive reason.
The optimism prevailed among the investors boosted further as the MPC of the State Bank of Pakistan decided at its emergency meeting yesterday, to cut the policy rate by a further 200 basis points to 9 percent. In addition to this, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved US$ 1.386 billion under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) equivalent to SDR 1,015.5 million to meet the urgent balance of payment needs stemming from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The majority of these gains have been brought in by Fertilizer, Oil & Gas Exploration Companies and Cement who presently are up by 323, 218 and 186 points.
On the contrary, the PKR opened weaker in the interbank market, before returning to previous days level.
