Karachi, May 9 (PTI) Depletion of foreign reserves and delay in the resumption of the International Monetary Fund programme affected the Pakistan stock exchange on Monday as it shed nearly 1500 points in intraday trading.

The Pakistani currency also lost out against the US dollar which gained flight to sell at 188.05 in the interbank market. Since the cash-strapped country's new government of Shahbaz Sharif took over last month the market has been under pressure.

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Kumail Ahmed at Topline securities said this was because of the depletion of foreign reserves and delay in the resumption of the IMF programme among other factors.

“The market and investors are still waiting to hear good news about help from friendly countries and an increase in foreign reserves. The pressure on global equity markets is also hurting sentiment,” he added.

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According to the PSX website, the KSE-100 Index opened at 44,840.81 points, made a high of 44,841.41 points before going down rapidly.

By midday it had sunk to 43,289.50 around 1:45pm, which represented an intraday decline of 1,551.31 points.

Khurram Shehzad, CEO of Alpha Beta Core said no progress on funding Saudi Arabia, UAE and the IMF has left investors worried.

Pakistan government's talks with the IMF for the suspended package are slated to resume after May 18.

He said investors were also waiting for a decision by the government on abolishing subsidies on petroleum products which was a major issue for everyone.

The overall uncertainty in the market also hit the currency market with the dollar trading at 188.5 rupees in the inter bank at midday as the rupee depreciated by 1.25 rupees, according to the Forex Association of Pakistan.

The dollar had climbed to a record level of 189.25 on April 1 before the vote of no confidence against the Imran Khan government.

A senior official of the Forex Association of Pakistan said the dollar could gain more because of payments to be made for imported oil.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)