For the third day in a row shares at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) have declined on Thursday as political and economic unpredictability persisted.
At 3:27 PM on Wednesday the benchmark KSE-100 index had dropped 511.83 points or 1.28 percent to hit 39,320.62.
Political ambiguity especially the current situation due to the Punjab Assembly, about which many rumours had been circulating all day has been said to be a major cause of the downward trend. As the political turmoil continued before the upcoming dissolution of the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assemblies equities have been plummeting across the board.
The benchmark index had dropped by 1,138.37 points the day before breaking through the 40,000 barriers.
Analysts have linked the escalating economic crisis and Punjab’s political unrest to the stock market’s downward trajectory.
PTI Chairman Imran Khan declared on Saturday that the administrations of his party in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will dissolve their legislatures on December 23 to allow for new elections.
The nation’s economic predicament has also been becoming worse every day. The foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan are in serious condition after falling by $11 billion in a single year. The central bank’s reserves which were $17.686 billion in December 2021 are now only $6.7 billion as of December 9 barely enough to fund one month’s worth of imports.
The severity of the issue has worsened since the ninth review of an IMF program worth $7 billion has experienced delays even as remote negotiations between Fund officials and the government are taking place for the release of $1.18 billion.
