With the inflows of commercial loans, the foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) crossed the $4 billion mark during the week ending on June 23. The central bank reported that during the week its reserves increased by $533 million to $4.069bn mainly due to the realisation of $300m commercial loans to the Government of Pakistan. The country’s total reserves increased to
Pakistan’s merchandise exports dipped by 12.71 per cent year-on-year to $27.54 billion in 2022-23 from $31.78bn in the preceding fiscal year, showed data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Monday. The export contraction continued for the 10th month in a row, plunging by 18.72pc year-on-year to $2.36bn in June. The export proceeds are declining because of internal and external f
Two leading global rating agencies have warned that Pakistan will require significantly more funds than what it’s receiving from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to meet its debt maturities and to finance its economic recovery, reported Bloomberg on Monday. Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings that issued the warning are two of the big three credit rating agencies, recognised by the
The stock market opened in the green on Monday with the benchmark KSE-100 index rising more than 2,000 points following the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The market was up 2,269.23 points at 9:32am from Friday’s close of 41,452.68 points before trading was halted for an hour after the index hit its upper circuit limit. When trading resumed, the market remained above t
The Securities (Leveraged and Pledging) Rules have significantly impacted the Pakistani capital markets, albeit not in a positive way. These rules allow stock exchanges, central depositary companies and clearing companies to act as authorised intermediaries for leverage products, such as margin trading and margin financing system. This article recommends removing these frontline regulators from