Stocks closed higher on Wednesday as investors welcomed the recovery in the rupee’s value against the dollar likely because of the expected tranche from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Arif Habib Corporation analyst Ahsan Mehanti said there was some midsession pressure on stocks owing to a downgrade by international ratings agency Fitch. In addition, uncertainty over the outcome of the F
THE inevitable came to pass yesterday when Finance Minister Ishaq Dar introduced additional tax measures in order to generate Rs170bn over the remainder of the current fiscal, ahead of the resumption of bailout talks with the IMF. The revenue to be generated, once parliament approves the bill, is supposed to help ‘balance’ this year’s budget by holding down the deficit to targeted levels and to
Higher exchange rates attracted extensive dollar selling especially from exporters which enabled the rupee to recover Rs9.24 against the greenback during the last 11 days. The US currency peaked at an all-time high at Rs276.58 on Feb 3 against the rupee mainly due to extreme volatility in exchange rates stemming from the government’s attempt to manage the exchange parity artificially low which
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday tabled the Finance (Supplementary) Bill, 2023, in both houses of the parliament, outlining tax measures to raise an additional Rs170 billion in the next four and half months to meet the last prior actions agreed upon with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to secure early disbursement of about $1.2bn instalment. Two measures — raising the federal excis
Jazz Ltd CEO Aamir Ibrahim said on Wednesday the rollout of 5G, which is the fifth-generation technology standard for broadband cellular networks, should be put on hold. Speaking at a business conference organised by Nutshell Group, the CEO of the largest telecom firm with a market share of over 38 per cent said the stakeholders should strive to do a better job by ensuring “4G for all rather th