PSX crashes as index falls more than 2000 points

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange crashed on Friday, the last day of the business week, falling more than 2,000 points to fall below the 72,000 level on Friday morning.

The benchmark KSE-100 index opened with a bearish trend. At 09:52 AM, the index fell 2000 points to a low of 71781.96.

The KSE-100 index recovered at 11:17 am and is trading down 1087.25 points at 72,775.68.

Experts attributed the decline to concerns over the budget proposals for 2024-25. The budget 2024-25, which was earlier scheduled to be presented on June 10, is now likely to be presented on June 12.

Sources said that the Pakistan Economic Survey 2023-24 will be presented on June 11 after the council meeting on June 10.

The federal budget 2024-25 is likely to be approved by the Senate by June 26. The Pakistani government is likely to end tax exemptions in the budget of the fiscal year 2024-25 on the demand of the IMF.

According to the budget proposals for Budget 2024-25, Pakistan is likely to phase out sales and income tax exemptions.

The government is also considering imposing a sales tax on tractors and pesticides, which could potentially increase the prices of these essential agricultural products.