ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Stock Exchange crashed over the FATF announcement against Pakistan greylist.
KSE-100 index lost over 1,105 points – down 2.82 per cent – to close at 39, 143, well below the 40,000 barrier.
Today’s losses followed a lacklustre last week link during which the market remained largely flat as bulls and bears managed to secure an upper hand in turns. The index had closed Friday almost flat with a minor uptick of just six points (0.01 per cent) at 40,249 from Monday (Feb 17).
Ali Asghar Poonawala, Deputy Head of Research at AKD Securities, told *Dawn.com* the predominant reason for the downslide was the "FATF statement maintaining Pakistan on the grey list".
He said significant headwinds, partially flowing through from last week (macro weakness as government manages inflationary pressures while aiming to meet IMF's performance criteria), were brought to light by the "relatively harshly worded FATF statement link ".
Poonawala said even though FATF had acknowledged significant progress being made by Pakistan, which was reflected by the body extending the timeline for implementing reforms, its strong statement did not bide well for investor sentiment.