AIIB loan helps stocks stage comeback

With the release of $500 million by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for Pakistan, the stock market rebounded and made some recovery on Tuesday following a sharp fall a day ago as the muchneeded inflows would provide cushion against the fast dwindling foreign currency reserves of the country. In a tweet, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced that Pakistan had received $500 million from the AIIB in development programme financing. he news came as a welcome relief for the bruised stock investors, who made modest buying after previous day’s massive selling. Apart from that, easing of political tensions, positive developments in PakistanIMF talks and rupee’s stability helped soothe investors’ nerves, encouraging them to accumulate stocks at attractive valuations. “Stocks showed a sharp recovery amid thin trade, led by selected blue chips, after the receipt of $500 million from the AIIB and surge in global crude oil prices,” commented Ahsan Mehanti, MD of Arif Habib Corp. “Easing of political noise and expectations of positive outcome from Pak-IMF talks ahead of the release of a $1.18 billion tranche played the role of catalysts in the bullish close of market,” he said. At close of trading, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 302.25 points, or 0.72%, to settle at 42,373.59.