By mid-March 2020, Pakistan emerged as the best-performing stock market in the entire Asian investment marketplace, which includes giants like Russia, China, and India. According to trade experts, this is just a start for the forward ascent of Pakistan’s stock market. It is becoming the best performer in Asia by registering a KSE-100 index growth by 36% in the past few months.
So far, this has been the best rebound growth for Pakistan’s stock market in 2020. Major Asian equity indices suggest that the mid-2020 period helped the country outperform its equities. Pakistan’s central banks support the nation’s stock market upsurge and indicate how the market is aggressively cutting interest rates to mend ways for its turbulent economy; this move stemmed from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. While the fixed income has lowered its double-digit returns, Pakistan sees a major bolstering for its bullish equities.
Fayal Asset Management Ltd.’s Chief Investment Officer, Ayub Khuhro sees this abrupt fall in the interest rates as an opportunity for locals to re-allocate their bonds and make them equities. The assets owned by Khuhro himself have tripled in the past year and currently stand at a value of $210 million. Khuhro foresees these rates to stay low in the coming years, continuing the high season for Pakistani investors
Tade experts observed that a slowdown in COVID-19 infections delivered a major boost to Pakistan’s economy and gave it a new high after nearly seven decades. It also prompted FIM Partners from Dubai to make a major exposure in Pakistan in July, which was followed by the Philippines.
FIM Partners’ Mohammed Ali Hussain sees Pakistan emerging as the largest stock exposure in Asia for 2020. For the next six months, Pakistan’s rebound from COVID-19’s economic paralysis will place its macroeconomic growth on track. FIM Partners is currently managing funds worth $1.6 billion and sees potential in Pakistan’s stock market. According to Hussain, the coming months will create enough room for Pakistani investments to re-rate their macro stock portfolios and KSE-100 Index rankings.
