The Pakistan Stock Exchange closed on a positive note as the benchmark index gained more than 100 points on Wednesday.

The KSE-100 Index gained 137.44 points or 0.22% to settle at 61,979.18 levels at the closing of the market.

Similarly, the KSE-30 Index added 80.94 points or 0.39% to reach 20,954.32 at the market’s closing.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund lowered its 2024 economic growth projection for Pakistan to 2%, less than 0.5% from 2.5% in October last year, as the fund released its World Economic Outlook update a day earlier.

For Pakistan, the global lender expects gross domestic product growth of 2% this year, 0.5 percentage point below the October estimate.

The international lender’s growth forecast is lower than the government’s 3.5% GDP growth target for the current year. But the lender raised the 2025 projection to 3.5%.

Foreign investors offloaded $35 million worth of shares at PSX in January 2024, Business Recorder quoted a brokerage house as saying.

“This is the highest net selling by foreigners at PSX after 12 months,” said Topline Securities in a note.

According to the note, recent above-average selling of $35 million in January raised concern amongst investors at a time when the market was waiting for a pre-election rally.