KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange had a boorish trend on Monday, courtesy of the comments from Finance Minister Ishaq Dar about the foreign exchange reserves of the country. On Sunday, Ishaq Dar said that foreign exchange reserves are at $10 billion as the commercial banks’ reserves also belong to Pakistan.
The statement created panic among investors, and the KSE-100 index dropped to 40,591.96 points after losing 415.56 points. According to Ali Malik, Chief Executive of First National Equities Limited, the comments by the finance minister give a picture that the government might freeze US dollar accounts as the PML-N government did in 1998.
He added that the market was under pressure, and there was no clear picture that how much funds would be raised in the Climate Resilient Pakistan conference. Zafar Moti, former director of PSX, also echoed the sentiments of Ali Malik.