Stocks rally after ECP election announcement
Bulls took over the trading floor of the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday following the announcement by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) regarding the date of the next general election. Topline Securities said share prices experienced a surge amid bullish sentiments attributed to the ECP statement. The development “significantly boosted” the investors’ confidence and led to a “remarkable” increase in the benchmark index, it added. The official indication that the general election will take place in the last week of January 2024 “effectively dispelled the prolonged political uncertainty” that cast a shadow over investors’ sentiments for many months. According to Arif Habib Corporation analyst Ahsan Mehanti, a slump of up to 217 basis points in the treasury yields in the latest auction held by the State Bank of Pakistan, along with expectations expressed by the Asian Development Bank on polls and reforms for the stabilisation of the economy, played the role of a catalyst in the positive close.