KARACHI, Pakistan, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Pakistan's benchmark stock index rose to a record of 53,263.07 points in intraday trade on Friday, a day after Pakistan announced general election dates and the International Monetary Fund mission met with Pakistani authorities.
The South Asian nation is operating under a caretaker government after a $3 billion IMF loan programme was approved in July to avert a sovereign debt default.
Pakistan's general election will be held on Feb. 8, a spokesman for country's election commission said on Thursday. Analysts believe that with elections in sight, expectations of policy stability have increased and economic uncertainty have been reduced.
The previous record was 53,127 points on May 25, 2017.
The market gapped up 52,917 points at the open on Friday, up 260 points from its previous close.
"The market in dollar terms is still undervalued. The KSE100 index is at around 20,000 points if compared to the dollar value in 2017," said Adnan Sheikh, an independent economist.
He added that fundamentals have improved and valuations are at all-time lows as corporate profitability has grown many fold. "The index should be at 150,000 to reflect a similar valuation," he said. (Reporting by Ariba Shahid in Karachi; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Christian Schmollinger)
