PSX opens bullish as KSE-100 crosses 140,000 mark
This marks his second US visit in two weeks, with the government signalling that the deal with Washington is near.
The trip comes after Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Friday that the US and Pakistan were "very close" to a trade deal that could come within days, but comments from the US after Dar met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio mentioned no timeline.
Read: Finance minister heads to US to finalise trade deal
During the session, the index touched an intraday high of 140,296.65 and a low of 139,733.06.
Trading volume stood at 47.34 million shares, with a total value of Rs 5.36 billion.
On Monday, PSX closed modestly higher as the benchmark KSE-100 index rose 173 points to close at 139,380.
Investor sentiment was buoyed by optimism ahead of the State Bank of Pakistan's (SBP) monetary policy announcement and the credit rating upgrade, bringing Pakistan's rating to 'B-' with a stable outlook.
Read more: PSX rises modestly but couldn't hold 140k level
Arif Habib Limited (AHL) Deputy Head of Trading Ali Najib remarked that the PSX again attempted to pass the 140,000 mark but in vain, as the KSE-100 index ended the day at 139,380 points.
Overall trading volumes decreased to 589.3 million shares compared with Friday's tally of 634.8 million. Traded value increased to Rs34.6 billion as compared to Rs24.6 billion in the previous session.
Overall, shares of 483 companies were traded. Of these, 251 stocks closed higher, 205 dropped and 27 remained unchanged.
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Express Tribune
an hour ago
- Express Tribune
Pakistan removes hurdle in trade deal with US
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb shakes hands with US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick during a meeting in Washington on Friday, July 18, 2025. Photo: Ministry of Finance Listen to article In a major concession to the United States for striking a trade deal, Pakistan on Wednesday exempted 5% tax, which it had imposed a month ago on foreign tech firms and online platforms on supply of digitally ordered goods and services. However, the tax exemption is not specific to only the US tech companies. All the foreign firms will benefit from the decision, which has been taken on the demand of the US administration, a senior official of the Federal Board of Revenue told The Express Tribune. The FBR, the nation's tax collecting authority, notified the waiver on Wednesday, the day Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb was in Washington to further bilateral trade talks. Also Read: SBP keeps interest rate at 11% 'In exercise of the powers conferred by section 15 of the Digital Presence Proceeds Tax Act, 2025, the federal government is pleased to direct that the Digital Presence Proceeds Tax shall not apply to digitally ordered goods and services supplied from outside Pakistan, by any person, which are chargeable to tax under the said Act,' according to the FBR notification. It further added that the tax will be waived off with effect from the first day of July 1, 2025 — the day the new law and fiscal year 2025–26 budget became effective. A Pakistani delegation is currently in the US to settle the outstanding issues that are hampering the bilateral trade deal. It is the second visit by the Pakistani team in less than two weeks, aimed at securing the trade deal that can address the US concerns and to a greater degree protect Pakistan's commercial interests. The sources said that during the last round of trade talks held between Pakistan's Finance Minister and the US Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, the US had raised the issue of the 5% tax imposed in the budget, which was hurting the US tech giants. Read: IMF puts growth below govt target The waiver will cause billions of rupees in tax losses to Pakistan. The Finance Ministry sources said that to address any concern by the International Monetary Fund, the US authorities may directly speak to the Fund. The US is the single largest shareholder of the IMF, having little over 16% stakes. The government had imposed the 5% digital proceeds tax on the grounds that the cross-border e-commerce by foreign vendors remained largely untaxed in Pakistan due to tax treaty limitations requiring a permanent establishment for income taxation. The FBR had apprised the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance that the tax base of market jurisdictions' erosion was occurring as foreign businesses used digital platforms to sell goods and services without physical presence. Many countries have introduced Digital Services Taxes (DST) to reclaim taxing rights based on significant digital presence, especially for services, and accordingly Pakistan proposed to tax both digitally supplied goods and services. Also Read: Cabinet approves national AI policy, targets 1m professionals by 2030 The standing committee had also been briefed that the digital advertisement of foreign vendors i.e., Temu in the Pakistani market by platforms such as Google would be taxed in consistency with Pakistani taxing rights. Under the new law, payment intermediaries — including banks and financial institutions — were required to collect tax on digital payments made to foreign vendors supplying goods or services into Pakistan. They are also required to quarterly report the revenue collected from international e-commerce providers. The Express Tribune reported on July 19th that Pakistan had assured the United States-based Google that it will be exempted from a 5% new digital tax and parts of the company's income will be taxed even at two-thirds reduced rates. The government had enacted the Digital Presence Proceeds Act in June to enhance tax collection from the offshore companies that had significant digital presence but were not paying taxes on their earnings. This month, the tax authorities assured the company that 'Google is not the target of the Digital Presence Proceeds Tax Act' and the legislation has been designed to cover specific cases of significant digital presence where no physical or registered business presence exists in Pakistan. Read More: PSX closes up as State Bank leaves rate unchanged Google has significant business presence in Pakistan and provides services for online advertising, search engine, cloud computing, communication, and entertainment. It is also the single largest contributor of digital service tax payments. Companies like Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Netflix will also be the beneficiaries of the tax exemption. The enactment of the Digital Presence Proceeds Act had created ripples in Pakistan, particularly among the YouTube users. The government had introduced the digital presence proceeds law to tax digitally delivered services provided over the internet or electronic networks, where the delivery is automated and required minimal or no human intervention, including music, audio and video streaming services, cloud services, online software application services, services delivered through online interpersonal interaction i.e., tele-medicine, e-learning etc, online banking services, architectural design services, research and consultancy reports, accounting services in the form of digital files, or any other online facility.
Business Recorder
4 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Pakistan's three Eurobonds trade at over $1 premium for first time in years
KARACHI: For the first time in recent history, Pakistan's three Eurobonds are trading at a premium price of over $1 a unit in international capital markets at present, suggesting the confidence of global investors on the domestic economy has boosted sharply. 'Pakistan's three Eurobonds are trading at premium for the first time after several years,' State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Jameel Ahmad said while speaking at the monetary policy press conference on Wednesday. SBP keeps policy rate unchanged at 11% The three bonds include the two maturing in September 2025 and April 2026, he said, recalling Pakistan's Eurobonds were trading 'at deep discount – at one-third of their issue price at 37-38 cents in 2023'. Arif Habib Limited, Head of Research, Sana Tawfik, added the Eurobonds maturing in September 2025 and April 2026 closed Wednesday's trade at 100.28 cents and 100.05 cents, respectively, in the international market. The third bond, maturing in January 2029, closed the day trade at 100.74 cents. There are six Pakistan's Eurobonds trading in global capital markets. The total issuance size of the bonds sum at $6.8 billion. They are maturing between September 2025 and April 2051. SBP governor Ahmad said the country's global bonds had revived after two international credit rating agencies upgraded Pakistan's rating to 'B-' from 'CCC+' along with a stable outlook. He said the boost in global investors' confidence - exhibited through the rising Eurobonds - was achieved in the wake of repayment of foreign debt and interest payments on the debt on time and a notable growth in foreign exchange reserves to $14.5 billion in FY25 compared to $9.4 billion in the prior year. Besides, the return of stability in the domestic economy and rupee-dollar exchange rate, and a jump in inflows of workers' remittances to record high at $38.3 billion in FY25 compared to $32.3 billion in FY24 also played pivotal roles. 10-year Eurobond: $1bn repayment made despite dearth of forex Ahmad said Pakistan would repay a total of $1.8 billion to global investors against the maturity of two Eurobonds falling in the current fiscal year 2025-26. The maturity of the two bonds and increase in the country's credit rating may allow Pakistan to raise new debt from global capital markets through selling new Eurobonds in future. Pakistan to repay a net $10bn in FY26 SBP governor said Pakistan was scheduled to repay $25.9 billion, including rollovers, in FY26. Giving a breakup, he said, the expected rollovers amounted to $16 billion in the current fiscal year 2025-26. However, the country has to pay a net $10 billion over the year. This includes repayment of commercial loans at $3.75 billion and interest payment on the overall debt at $4 billion over the year. Pakistan's overall foreign debt has remained stagnant at around $100 billion for the past three years, suggesting the new borrowing was purely being utilised to repay the maturing debt, Ahmad said. Earlier, the debt had surged by on an average $6 billion a year to $100 billion in the seven years duration.
Business Recorder
7 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Pakistan central bank sees FX reserves climbing to over $17bn by FY26 end
KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Jameel Ahmad projected on Wednesday that the central bank's foreign exchange (FX) reserves were expected to rise by $3 billion, reaching $17.5 billion by the end of the fiscal year 2025-26. The growth in the reserves would take place despite foreign debt repayments, including rollovers, totalling at $25.9 billion in FY26, he added. 'The FX reserves could be higher than the targeted $17.5 billion in FY26 if Pakistan raised new debt from global capital market through selling Eurobond,' Ahmad said at SBP monetary policy press conference. The central bank decided to keep the key interest unchanged at 11%. The FX reserves stood at $14.5 billion at the end of FY25 on June 30, 2025. He anticipated that Pakistan's GDP (gross domestic product) would grow in the range of 3.25% to 4.25% in FY26. It may be noted that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected Pakistan's GDP growth at 3.6% for FY26. The growth would be supported by revival in agricultural output and continue improvement in industrial and services sectors, SBP governor said. The current account deficit is expected to be in the range of 0-1% of GDP in FY26, ending the cycle of C/A surplus recorded in FY25. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the SBP noted that year-on-year inflation was expected to mostly remain in the range of 5–7 percent in FY26, though it might cross the upper bound in some months. The MPC emphasised that the outlook was susceptible to multiple risks emanating from uncertain global commodity prices and trade outlook, unanticipated adjustments in administered energy prices, and potential widespread floods.
