The Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday witnessed a decline – for the second consecutive day – as the benchmark KSE-100 index shed over 500 points during intraday trade.
The market opened at 42,863.15 points and the KSE-100 index gained 63.81 points to rise to the day’s high of 42,927.96 early morning, However, the index sharply declined to 42,621.51 points soon after. Shortly after noon, the index plunged to the day’s low of 42,313.99 after losing 549.16 points from the day’s opening value.
Today’s decline comes just one day after the PSX saw a meltdown during which the KSE-100 fell by 1,100 points in intraday trade.
Meanwhile, the rupee has continued to lose ground against the US dollar on Thursday, as the greenback touched an all-time high of Rs192 in the interbank market.
According to the Forex Association of Pakistan, the dollar surpassed the 191-mark at the day’s start and soared to Rs192.20 close to noon. The dollar appreciated by Rs2 from the previous day’s close of 190.20 – a record high value for the greenback before today’s session.
Asad Rizvi, the treasury head at Chase Manhattan Bank, told local media that the Pakistani rupee had fallen by nearly nine percent against the dollar, from the time Russia invaded Ukraine, to “hit all-time new lows”.
He further stressed that the economic slowdown and higher oil prices as a result of the Russian offensive had also affected other currencies and accelerated inflation. Rizvi cautioned there was “no respite in sight”, and things might get worse.
