– A leading billionaire Arif Habib has pledged a Rs125 billion investment to resuscitate and upgrade Pakistan foreign Airlines (PIA), unveiling an ambitious plan to expand the national carrier’s fleet, re-establish foreign operations and make it into a competitive airline.

Addressing a function in Karachi, Habib said the investment is aimed at transforming PIA into a model national carrier that can compete in the regional and worldwide markets.

He said he reassured Chief of Army Staff and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that the airline will be restored to its previous status with consistent investment and professional management.

Flights in the US expected to resume

Habib expressed hope that the PIA flights to the United States would be resumed later this year after the completion of the relevant regulatory and operational processes.

He also claimed that no employee of the PIA would be laid off during the first year of the transaction under the sale and purchase agreement of the government.

Plan for fleet growth

The billionaire blamed the PIA’s demise on years of underinvestment, administrative inefficiencies and poor management, which he said had hit the airline’s foreign network hard.

He also announced plans to induct five additional aircraft every year in the coming years with an aim to increase the number of operational aircraft to 60 during the next five years.

Habib said PIA currently has 18 active aircraft in operation, with another four to five aircraft in the existing fleet to be restored and put back in service.

Share repurchase

Habib added that payment for 66.66 percent of the airline’s shares had also been paid under the government’s Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA).

He said the remaining 33 percent of the shares would be paid in one year, according to the provisions of the deal.

The investment plan is anticipated to be focused on fleet modernisation, operating efficiency and the expansion of PIA’s international footprint as part of the wider efforts to enhance the country’s national airline.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) maintained its bullish momentum on Monday as the benchmark KSE-100 Index closed at an all-time high for the first time, supported by strong purchasing across the board on the back of robust investor confidence.

The KSE-100 Index reached a record peak of 187,454.62 points, gaining 2,082 points and exceeding the 187,000-point mark for the first time in the exchange’s history.

The rally was a sign of continued optimism among investors at the start of the business week, with purchasing demand evident in several industries.

Shares of 564 listed firms were traded during the session. Out of them, the share prices of 296 firms rose and 182 companies fell. Other stocks were mostly unchanged.

The record close follows a series of milestones for Pakistan’s equity market, which has seen robust performance in recent months, driven by rising investor optimism and sustained interest in blue-chip firms.

Market analysts said the latest surge reflects confidence in the country’s economic outlook, but the future direction of the market will still depend on macroeconomic developments, business results, monetary policy expectations and broader investor sentiment.

The U.S. dollar held near a two-week low on Monday as investors trimmed bets for a Federal Reserve rate hike this year, while the yen stayed locked near a 40-year low, putting investors on edge over what Tokyo would do next.

The euro bought $1.1435, close to its best level in two weeks, and the pound bought $1.3351 in latest trading. The dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against six others, was at 100.9 early in the trading day.

The yen stood at 161.57 to the dollar, not far from a 1986 low of 162.84 set last week, with traders still concerned of probable intervention after a surprising burst of purchasing momentarily raised the currency on Thursday.

The South Korean won edged higher on the first day of its historic 24-hour onshore spot dollar-won trading. It sold for 1,534 to the dollar.

DOLLAR ON THE DEFENSIVE

The U.S. dollar suffered its largest weekly loss last week since April after the U.S. payrolls report indicated that job growth slowed abruptly in June, lowering market expectations of a rate hike from the Fed.

Still, the fall in the unemployment rate indicates a healthy labour market and should assist preserve Fed tightening expectations, OCBC strategists said.“The broader USD outlook remains constructive,” they wrote, confirming their call for a modest ​2-3% rise in the dollar in the second half of 2026.

Falling oil prices have helped soothe some inflationary concerns, and investors this week will focus on the minutes of the Fed’s June meeting to help evaluate policymakers’ thinking regarding the rates forecast.

Strategists at Commonwealth Bank of Australia said the minutes might be shorter or less insightful than normal because Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh believes the central bank has offered too much direction in the past.

YEN VIGIL ON

The yen remained in the spotlight, hovering near a 40-year low as the threat of official intervention kept traders on edge, but analysts doubted any move by Tokyo would provide durable assistance.

OCBC strategists said the danger of intervention is more likely to create bouts of volatility and transitory ​corrections rather than a durable reversal in USD/JPY.”Without a meaningful change ​in underlying macro ​fundamentals, verbal warnings and outright intervention alone are unlikely to change the broader direction of the pair,” they concluded. The Japanese policymakers have also broken their tradition of telegraphing risks, suggesting a more targeted drive to squeeze speculators and boost the cost of betting against the yen, which investors are also worried about.Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex, said, “The market understands about the risk of intervention. “We’re still seeing indications in the options market that some sizable pools of capital have bought short-dated dollar puts to hedge long dollar positions in the event of intervention,” he said.