Stocks rally after govt issues clarification on IMF talks

Stock prices ended their downward slide on Wednesday as their benchmark index stayed in the green throughout the trading session. Arif Habib Ltd said stock prices showed improvement following a clarification by the Ministry of Finance with regard to the ninth review of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme. Following “false” messages about the “supposed economic emergency” on social media, the government clarified a day ago that the IMF programme was back on track and that negotiations leading to ninth review were now at an “advanced stage”. Investors regained confidence after two days of continuous drops in stock rates because of the clarification and their renewed interest reflected in healthy participation. As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,819.29 points, up 279.35 points or 0.67 per cent from the preceding session. The overall trading volume increased 68.2pc to 221.5 million shares. The traded value went up 50.3pc to $26.2m on a day-on-day basis.