Buying rally continues at PSX, KSE-100 surges nearly 700 points

Buying rally continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index closing the final session of the week with a gain of nearly 700 points.

The bourse maintained a positive trend throughout the trading session, with the benchmark index hitting an intra-day high of 114,721.58.

At close, the KSE-100 Index settled at 114,398.69 level, an increase of 685.52 points or 0.6%.

Buying was observed in key sectors including commercial banks, fertilizer, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refinery. Index-heavy stocks including ARL, NRL, HUBCO, PSO, SNGPL, POL, PPL, HBL, MCB and NBP traded in the green.

The positive momentum comes as investors expect further rate cuts by the central bank in its upcoming Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), scheduled for Monday.

A Business Recorder poll of analysts showed a median expectation of a 50bps rate cut, with only one anticipating no change.

Moreover, analysts said that reports indicating that the government plans to borrow Rs1.25 trillion from the banking sector to retire the circular debt is also driving the market upwards.

On Thursday, driven by institutional buying and expectations of a further rate cut, the PSX staged a strong comeback, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining over 1,450 points.

Globally, investors were met with some calm on Friday after a turbulent week besieged by US trade policy confusion and a global rise in borrowing costs, as a steep selloff in bonds abated and currencies steadied, though Wall Street stocks tracked lower.

Overnight the Nasdaq confirmed it has been in a correction since peaking last December, as US stocks face headwinds from a darkening growth outlook in the world’s largest economy and uncertainty over US President Donald Trump’s tariff policies.

Trump on Thursday suspended the 25% tariffs he imposed this week on most goods from Canada and Mexico until April 2 - the day he threatened to impose a global regime of reciprocal tariffs on all US trading partners.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan last traded 0.5% lower, though was on track for a weekly gain of more than 2.5%, which would mark its largest increase in nearly six months.

The rise was helped by a rally in its Chinese counterparts as investors continued to pile into artificial intelligence shares and welcomed Beijing’s new policy support.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee recorded marginal decline against the US dollar, depreciating 0.05% in the inter-bank market on Friday. At close, the rupee settled at 279.97, a loss of Re0.15 against the greenback.

Volume on the all-share index increased to 404.36 million from 373.09 million recorded in the previous close.

The value of shares rose to Rs27.84 billion from Rs26.25 billion in the previous session.

Fauji Cement was the volume leader with 57.22 million shares, followed by Sui South Gas with 23.76 million shares, and Maple Leaf with 22.47 million shares.

Shares of 433 companies were traded on Friday, of which 219 registered an increase, 151 recorded a fall, while 63 remained unchanged.