Finance ministry urges careful media reporting over ebb

Finance ministry urges careful media reporting over ebb

ISLAMABAD: The ministry of finance on Tuesday urged the media for careful reporting over the ebb and flows of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).

“Yesterday as being unfortunate as such reports highlighting sharp volatility in the market damage the interest of the small investors and create uncertainty in the market,” a statement said.

“The role of the media in reporting the ebb and flow in the market needs to be carefully analyzed particularly in the wake of rumors spread by a section of the media regarding alleged changes in the government’s economic team which sent wrong signal to the market and damaged the interest of small investors and hurt overall sentiment in the market,” says it added.

The Ministry of Finance has noted that it is natural for the market to see a correction after rising sharply by over 50 percent.

“Yesterday, the market fell 846 points. Today the market gained 417 points. These ebbs and flows of the market are driven by sentiments, whereas the fundamentals remain strong and continue to improve.”

The Ministry of Finance also pointed out that after rising by 50 percent from August 2019 to January 2020, the KSE 100 index had already been named as the top performing market in the world by Bloomberg in December 2019.

The improved investor confidence was based on corrective measures taken by the government to reduce the twin deficits.

These measures were also strongly endorsed by Moody’s Investor Services in December 2019 with an upgrade in outlook to ‘stable’ from ‘negative’.

Foreign portfolio investment in the stock market during the first 6 months of the current fiscal year has also stood at US$ 18.8 million after 4 years of heavy selling by foreign investors.