KARACHI: Pakistan Pakistan stock market on Friday gained 1000 points after an accountability court sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan to 14 years in prison in the £190m graft case.

Minutes after the court announced the verdict, the KSE-100 index benchmark, at 12pm, hovered at 114,856.78, an increase of 1,020.04 points or 0.9%.

“We think the market is concerned about the potential release of Imran Khan from jail, which could lead to greater political uncertainty,” said Intermarket Securities.

“Conversions at mutual funds have also slowed down. We think the market will remain range-bound at this stage until there are fresh new triggers,” it added.

After the court verdict, the market was created positively and buyers witnessed in key sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, fertilizer, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refineries.

Index-heavy stocks including NRL, PRL, HUBCO, PSO, SNGP, SSGC, MARI, OGDC, ENGRO, HBL and UBL traded in the green.

In a key development on the political front, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founding chairman Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi on Friday were convicted in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust case with the PTI founder being sentenced to 14 years in prison and a seven-year jail term handed to his wife.

Also Read: Imran Khan sentenced to 14 years in prison in £190m graft case

On Thursday, PSX witnessed a mixed trend and, after moving in both directions, closed on a negative note as investors opted to offload their holdings on available margins. The benchmark KSE-100 Index declined by 658.96 points, or 0.58%, to 113,836.74 points.

Globally, the tone in global stocks turned weaker on Friday as Asian shares tracked overnight losses on Wall Street. Bond yields slid amid a revival in bets that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in June.

Japanese equities were standout underperformers, with the Nikkei on course for its worst week in three months. The yen buckled under the weight of a resurgent yen amid rising bets on a Bank of Japan rate hike next week.

Chinese stocks drew some support after official figures showed the economy expanded 5.4% in the fourth quarter year-on-year, much stronger than expected. This puts full-year 2024 growth at 5%, bang in the centre of Beijing’s target.

Mainland Chinese blue chips were up 0.3% as of 0207 GMT, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.14%.

China’s yuan strengthened slightly to 7.34 per dollar in offshore trading.

MSCI’s world index edged down 0.05%. Its broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares lost 0.4%.

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