The Pakistan Stock Exchange saw a big drop of more than 2,000 points because people are uncertain about the upcoming budget. On Friday, the KSE-100 Index, which shows how the stock market is doing, went below 72,000 points, showing that the market is worried.
At the start of the trading day, there was a negative trend, and the index reached a low point of 71,781.96. But it got a bit better later on and closed around 72,775 points. The big drop happened because investors are worried about what the budget for the year 2024-2025 will look like. They’re not sure what the government will decide, and this makes them nervous about investing in the stock market.
Originally, the government was going to announce the budget on June 10. But they changed the plan, and now the Pakistan Economic Survey will come out on June 11, and the budget will be presented on June 12. This change made investors even more anxious because they don’t know what to expect from the budget yet. So, the uncertainty about the budget is making the stock market go up and down a lot.
One of the big concerns is that the government might get rid of tax exemptions. This is being talked about because of pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). If this happens, it could mean that things like tractors and pesticides might have sales tax added to them. This would make them more expensive for people to buy, and these items are really important for farming.
The government is thinking about doing this to meet the requirements of the IMF, but it’s making people worry about what might happen to different parts of the economy.
Experts think that because of this uncertainty and the possible tax changes, the stock market is going up and down a lot. Investors are keeping a close eye on what’s happening because the decisions made in the final budget will have a big impact on how stable the market is and what the economy might look like in the next year.
