Pakistani Stock Market is the World's Best Performing Market in 2024
Pakistan's KSE-100 shares index topped 80,000 points on Wednesday as stocks climbed more than 600 points, making it the world's best performing stock market. The benchmark KSE-100 index has posted an annual return of 89% during FY24 (July 2023-June 2024) in PKR terms while in US dollar terms, the return was 94%, as the Pakistani rupee appreciated against the US dollar, according to Pakistani media reports. This outstanding market performance is generally being seen as a consequence of a series of unpopular decisions by the military-backed government of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif to carry out economic reforms to win the IMF support. Pakistani Stock Market Outperforms Asian Peers. Source: Bloomberg Specifically, some analysts attribute the record increase in Pakistani share prices to multiple factors, ranging from the government's investor-friendly budget to the expectation of closing a longer term IMF deal . Others believe the relatively low price-e...