Stocks snap seven-session losing streak

The stock market ended its seven-session losing streak on Wednesday before the budget announcement, buoyed by optimism about the government’s privatisation plan and debt rollover talks with China. Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said equities showed recovery after Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb affirmed at the Economic Survey 2023-24 presser that state-owned enterprises’ privatisation would be vigorously pursued, a plan to negotiate China debt restructuring would be implemented while the talks with the Interna­tional Monetary Fund were moving in the right direction to stabilise the economy. Reacting to the budgetary proposal on Capital Gains Tax (CGT), Mr Meh­anti expected the stock market to remain under pressure owing to the CGT being raised to 45pc for non-filers and 15pc for short-term investors.