KARACHI – The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a sluggish session during the intraday trading on Friday as a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the completion of the ninth review of a $7 billion loan programme was delayed.
The benchmark KSE-100 index lost 568.21 points, or 1.34 per cent, to reach 41,898.38 points when trading was suspended for Friday prayers.
Topline Securities CEO Mohammad Sohail said the market was under pressure because of the delay.
Intermarket Securities’ Head of Equity Raza Jafri said, “The KSE-100 has pared some of this month’s gains in early morning trading due to the delay in securing the staff-level agreement with the IMF.”
Earlier on Friday, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday said that the talks the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded “positively” and the government will have to impose Rs170 billion in taxes through a mini-budget in order to get the loan programme.
Addressing the media, the finance minister confirmed that the government had received the draft of the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) from the global lender.
The finance minister this was an old agreement which had been suspended and delayed previously.
Pakistan to impose Rs170b taxes through mini-budget to get IMF deal: Ishaq Dar
