Shares at PSX surge 2,000 points following deal with IMF

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 the 2,000-mark, gaining 2,421.11 points to reach 43,873.79 points at 11:17am. Salman Naqvi, the head of research at Aba Ali Habib Securities, said that the market had approximately gained five per cent. He said that trading had been halted as per Pakistani Stock Exchange (PSX) rules. He attributed the surge to the staff-level agreement with the Fund for a $3 billion stand-by arrangement. “This is a very good agreement,” he said, expressing the hope that it would also help the local currency to recover. He said that agreement would also pave the way for the release of funds from multilateral and bilateral donors.