KARACHI – Bulls maintained their domination in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday as KSE-100 index has crossed the 83,000 points ceiling to hit another record high.

Till filing the story at 10:54 am, the 100-index benchmark has gained 280.75 points to reach 83,002.51 points with experts anticipating more gains during today’s session.

Experts have attributed the upward trend and positive sentiments among investors to the recently sealed loan deal with the International Monetary Fundy and dropping inflation rate in the country.

The annual consumer inflation dropped to a 44-month low of 6.9 percent in September amid steady decline in international market.

Meanwhile, the monthly CPI in September stood at -0.5pc, reflecting that the overall prices witnessed a decline as compared to previous month.

A day earlier, the KSE-100 index closed at 82,721.76 points  on Thursday as investors participated in the trading with positive sentiments.

This is a developing story…

The weekly inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), witnessed an increase of 0.44 percent for the combined consumption groups during the week ended on October 03, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday.

According to the PBS data, the SPI for the week under review in the above-mentioned group was recorded at 319.17 points as compared to 317.76 points during the past week.

As compared to the corresponding week of last year, the SPI for the combined consumption group in the week under review witnessed an increase of 13.18 per cent.

The weekly SPI with the base year 2015-16 =100 covers 17 urban centres and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.

Likewise, SPI for the lowest consumption group of up to Rs 17,732 witnessed increase of 0.68 per cent and went up to 313.20 points from last week’s 311.09 points.

The SPI for consumption groups of Rs 17,732 to 22,888; Rs 22,889-29,517; Rs 29,518-44,175 and above Rs 44,175, increased by 0.63 percent, 0.53 percent, 0.49 percent and 0.36 percent respectively.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 21 (41.18%) items increased, 10 (19.61%) items decreased and 20 (39.21%) items remained stable.—APP

The 1st Pakistan International Date Palm Festival and Exhibition aimed at bolstering country’s production and export of dates and its value-added products kick starts here at Expo Center Karachi on Friday.

The festival and exhibition are being organized by Ministry of National Food Security and Research and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan in collaboration with Embassy of United Arab Emirates in Pakistan and Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and agriculture innovation.

Besides local growers and processors of date palm, 150 delegates from 8 different countries were taking part in the festival and exhibition.

The Sindh Governor Kamran Khan Tessori, Chief Minster Syed Murad Ali Shah, UAE Envoy to Pakistan Hamad Obaid Ibrahim Salem Alzaabi, Federal secretary NFSR Ali Tahir, Chief Executive TDAP Zubair Motiwala and Secretary General Khalifa International Award Dr. Abdel Wahhab Zaid cut the ribbon to inaugurate the two-day festival and exhibition.

Sindh Governor Kamran Khan Tessori, speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the festival, termed the festival as a reflection of friendly ties of Pakistan and UAE and said that it would not only open new avenues of sharing and cooperation for both the brotherly countries but also help in the promotion of Pakistani dates.

He said that there was a vast potential for Pakistani dates in the global market and full access of Pakistani dates to the global market could earn precious foreign exchange for the country.

Tessori while stressing on the unity and collaboration among the Muslim countries said that these countries possessed enormous capital, resources and power and they could gain their due share in international trade through unity, coordination and collaborative efforts.

The governor stressed on need of commercial plantation, reducing post-harvest loses, value addition and provision of technical assistance to farmers for enhancing production as well as export of dates. He urged the local growers, manufacturers and exporters to leverage form the technical expertise of UAE friends.

The Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah, in his address, said that Pakistan is ranked at number five in date cultivation and production where Date Palm was cultivated on 252,000 acres while date production in the year 2022 had remained over 730,000 ton.

Sindh is the leading producer of dates which contributes more than 57% to the total national production while Khairpur is a major center for dates, producing more than 300 unique varieties, Murad Shah stated and added that a research center has been set up in Kot Deeji town, training programs have already been organized for growers in Khairpur and 8 solar gas hybrid dryers and 35 tunnel dryers have been installed to produce quality dates.

A project has been initiated to introduce palm cultivation in the Thar desert, for which Date Palm cultivation models have been obtained from the Gulf countries, he said and hoped that tissue culture technology will play a key role in accelerating the proliferation of these superior varieties.—APP