{"id":23289,"date":"2025-08-19T09:27:48","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T09:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=23289"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:27:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T09:27:50","slug":"pakistan-emerges-worlds-best-performing-equity-market-in-usd-terms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=23289","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan emerges world\u2019s best-performing equity market in USD terms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A
A currency dealer can be seen counting $100 notes while Rs5,000 notes are placed on the table. \u2014 AFP\/File<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In a remarkable achievement on the economic front, Pakistan holds the title for the best global equity performance in USD over the last year \u2014 a standout win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, India\u2019s equity market faced a clear downturn in direct response to the tariff escalation, marked by sectoral sell-offs, foreign investor pullbacks and weakened confidence. As a result, India is lagging behind many regional and emerging equity markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, India\u2019s Sensex posted a modest 3.2 percent return in USD terms during FY25, well behind Pakistan\u2019s surge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the Alaska summit falters, US President Donald Trump vows to further intensify tariffs beyond 50 percent, which could slow India\u2019s real GDP by 0.3-0.6 percentage points. This would heighten export losses, particularly in textiles and apparel, widening trade imbalances and straining weaker export-oriented sectors. The risks to employment and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) viability would also increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPakistan\u2019s equity market indeed led globally in USD terms, especially when considering the two-year cumulative returns. During fiscal year 2024-25 (FY25), Pakistan\u2019s benchmark KSE-100 Index delivered a 55.5 percent return in US dollar terms and 58.6 percent in Pakistani rupee terms,\u201d the bourse experts said while quoting fact-based data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pakistan ranked third globally behind Ghana and Slovenia and was eighth-best in FY25 alone, according to Bloomberg\u2014as a single year\u2019s performance. But over the two-year period (FY24 and FY25), Pakistan emerged as the world\u2019s best-performing equity market in USD terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo yes, especially looking at the two-year cumulative picture, Pakistan did top the global charts in USD terms,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pakistan\u2019s performance outpaced many markets, including India\u2019s. For FY25, Pakistan significantly outperformed India\u2019s BSE Sensex, which returned just 3.2 percent, as per AHL data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Asia, the KSE-100 beat regional markets like China (+14.8 percent) and India (+6 percent) in terms of returns. Indian markets have been under pressure due to concerns like tariffs, foreign investor outflows and slowing earnings, leading to multi-week losing streaks and cautious sentiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India performed modestly and faced headwinds in 2025\u2014and trailed Pakistan in USD-based equity performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India, while underperforming and showing signs of stress, was not necessarily at its lowest ebb. Domestic investment and some forward-looking optimism suggest there\u2019s still potential for recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Indian newspapers, when India\u2019s export tariffs began increasing\u2014from 25 percent initially to a total of 50 percent\u2014Indian equity markets reacted sharply. On August 7, 2025, Sensex fell 492 points ( 0.61pc) and Nifty dropped 156 points ( 0.64pc).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later that day, Sensex slid 671 points ( 0.84pc) to 79,867, and Nifty declined 208 points ( 0.85pc) to 24,362\u2014with all sectors in the red. Moody\u2019s warned that the tariff hike could derail India\u2019s manufacturing ambitions, hurt its ability to attract investments, and weigh on growth\u2014citing over $900 million in FII outflows in August alone, after $2 billion in July. Sensex and Nifty dropped ~2.9 percent in July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, amid US support during tariff tensions, on July 31, following Trump\u2019s announcement of increased tariffs on Indian goods, Pakistan\u2019s equity market rallied as the KSE-100 rose by about 1.3 percent (roughly 1,800 points). This was driven by investor optimism around a US pledge to help develop Pakistan\u2019s massive oil reserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest credible analysis indicates potential economic losses India may face if the Alaska summit between Trump and Putin fails\u2014leading to further US tariff escalation against India (already at 50pc)\u2014along with broader economic implications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moody\u2019s Ratings warns that the 50 percent tariffs could slow India\u2019s real GDP growth by around 0.3 percentage points, reducing forecasts from ~6.3% for FY2025\u201326. Barclays estimates slightly smaller effects: a 30 basis point (0.3 percentage point) drag on GDP growth, highlighting the economy\u2019s resilience due to its strong domestic demand. Other economic studies suggest national GDP could be reduced between 0.1pc to 0.6pc, depending on the duration and breadth of the tariff measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tariffs now affect 55 percent of US-bound Indian shipments, hitting vital export sectors like textiles, jewelry, apparel and footwear. This could lead to up to 70 percent reductions in these goods\u2019 competitiveness in the US market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The apparel sector alone could lose around $5 billion over seven months in export revenues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysts warn that labor-intensive manufacturing and MSMEs will be especially vulnerable\u2014potentially leading to job losses, weakened foreign exchange inflows and dampened investor sentiment. India\u2019s merchandise trade deficit rose to an eight-month high of $27.35 billion in July 2025, ahead of tariff enforcement\u2014signaling rising import bills and sluggish export growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reference Link:- https:\/\/www.thenews.com.pk\/latest\/1335946-pakistan-emerges-world-s-best-performing-equity-market-in-usd-terms<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a remarkable achievement on the economic front, Pakistan holds the title for the best global equity performance in USD over the last year \u2014 a standout win. However, India\u2019s equity market faced a clear downturn in direct response to the tariff escalation, marked by sectoral sell-offs, foreign investor pullbacks and weakened confidence. As a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[22902,132,22903,105,36,22905,22904],"class_list":["post-23289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sample-category","tag-best-performing","tag-economy","tag-equity-market","tag-geopolitics-2","tag-pakistan","tag-pakistan-emerges-worlds-best-performing-equity-market-in-usd-terms","tag-us-dollars-terms"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23291,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23289\/revisions\/23291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}