Shares at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) hit an all-time high of 124,000 points on Wednesday as the proposed federal budget for the upcoming fiscal year was well-received by investors for being “neutral-to-positive”.

Maintaining an aggressive stance on fiscal consolidation, as required by the Int­ernational Monetary Fund (IMF), the government yesterday still managed to offer some notional relief to the salaried class in the budget for FY2025-26, along with incentives for the real estate and construction sectors to revive the struggling industrial sector and stimulate economic growth.

While there had been uncer­tainties surrounding the taxation measures ahead of the budget announcement, the PSX remained bullish yesterday and gained nearly 400 points to cross the 122,000 point-mark, just before the budget was presented in the National Assembly.

The benchmark KSE-100 index crossed the 124,000-point barrier at around 11am. It then witnessed a slight decline before resurging to 124,588.17 points at........

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