Large-scale manufacturing (LSM) expanded for the second consecutive month in September, with year-on-year growth of 1.01 per cent, reversing a trend of 14 months of contraction, data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics showed on Wednesday. The LSM expansion can be attributed mostly to a government move to make it easier to open letters of credit (LCs) after being restricted to a few c
The rupee depreciated for the 17th consecutive session on Wednesday against the dollar in the interbank market. The currency market players believe that the dollar will continue dominating the local currency in the coming days. The State Bank of Pakistan reported that the greenback appreciated by 27 paise to close at Rs288.14. Currency dealers said there was no change in the market sentiment
The caretaker government imposed a one-off 40 per cent tax on bank profits reaped from foreign exchange transactions in the past two years, a measure the previous coalition administration also considered but failed to implement. The federal cabinet’s approval of the windfall tax came after strong criticism of banks that they had earned a hefty Rs110 billion in profits in 2021 and 2022 from the
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday reached a staff-level agreement with Pakistan on the first review of a short-term loan deal, which will unlock about $700 million next month. The funds to be issued are a second tranche of the nine-month bailout package and are subject to approval from the IMF’s executive board, the lender said in a statement. This will bring total disbursement
The trading session at the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Tuesday kicked off on a positive note owing to an all-time-high close a day ago. Topline Securities Ltd said the momentum lost steam as sellers entered the market, leading the KSE-100 index to a rapid 755-point decline. Subsequently, bulls regained control of the trading floor and took advantage of the downswing in share prices. Power, i