Stocks traded at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended Thursday with a 0.74 percent increase, matching the previous session’s value and volume. Negative reports about the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) programme prompted the index to open lower. As a result of this uncertainty, the KSE-100 fell below the 43,000 mark in the first half of the year before recovering to close at over 43,500. At closing, the KSE-100 gained 318.76 points (0.74pc) to complete the day at a value of 43,522.55 points. According to Capital Stake’s post-market commentary, “political noise has kept investors on the sidelines who want to wait and observe the scenario.” With Prime Minister Imran Khan facing increasing pressure from the opposition over a vote of no confidence, Pakistani politics have become increasingly tense. Pakistan’s National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser has scheduled a lower house session on the opposition’s no-trust resolution against Prime Minister Imran Khan for March 25, according to prior reports. There are still continuous discussions at a technical level, with virtual meetings and data exchange, between the two sides under IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF), according to the Ministry of Finance. According to Nimir Industrial Chemicals Limited, the expansion of its “Soap Noodle Plant” has been completed satisfactorily and commercial production has begun. Soap noodles’ annual production capacity has been raised to 120,000 metric tonnes as a result of the expansion, according to the company’s statement. In addition to cement at 73.73 points, technology & communications at 53.08 points, and commercial banks at 52.08 points, the benchmark index rose (36.2 points). From 138.28 million to 149.79 million shares traded on the all-share index, the number of shares traded has climbed by a significant amount. Also, the value of shares traded increased to Rs5.64 billion from the previous session’s Rs5 billion value. TRG Pakistan Limited has the most shares (20.76 million), followed by Treet Corporation (10.2 million) and TeleCard Limited (9.4 million). On Thursday, shares of 334 firms were traded, with 178 seeing their prices rise, 132 seeing their prices fall, and 24 seeing their prices stay the same.