Equities drift further lower on elusive IMF deal

The dimmed chances for releasing the first tranche by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive board even early next month kept market sentiments depressed, pushing the benchmark index below 78,000 despite a rating upgrade in a volatile session on Wednesday. Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said the stock market closed lower on a weak economic outlook amid reports of uncertainty over $9 billion loan rollovers. The midsession support witnessed by Moody’s credit rating upgrade to Caa2, raising Pakistan’s outlook to positive, did help the index partially trim early losses. He said reports of Pakistan’s inclusion on the IMF board meeting agenda for the $7bn Extended Fund Facility could be postponed owing to unresolved gross financing gap and trade and industry protests over higher taxes and surging power tariff also contributed to the bearish close.