KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained under pressure during the week ending April 25, 2025, amid escalating geopolitical tensions and uncertainty between Pakistan and India.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index shed 1,846 points, or 1.6 percent, on a week-on-week basis, closing at 115,469.35 points compared to 117,315.59 points in the previous week. Despite the decline, average trading volumes rose by 31 percent week-on-week, reaching 599 million shares from 456 million shares.
Meanwhile, the average daily traded value on the ready counter fell by 10 percent to Rs 29.30 billion, down from Rs 32.61 billion the prior week. Total market capitalization also declined by Rs 249 billion, settling at Rs 14.096 trillion versus Rs 14.346 trillion a week earlier.
BRIndex100 also fell 271 points during the last week to close at 12,309 points compared to 12,580.53 points a week earlier. Average daily turnover at BRIndex100 was 521 million shares. BRIndex30 also declined by 1,202 points on a week-on-week basis to settle at 36,709 points with average daily trading volumes of 351 million shares.
According to AHL Research, the KSE-100 index exhibited mixed trends during the week, initially continuing its upward trajectory driven by encouraging economic indicators. However, the momentum weakened later in the week as geopolitical (India-Pakistan) concerns came to the forefront.
On the macroeconomic front, banking sector deposits recorded a healthy growth of 11.7 percent YoY in Mar 2025. However, the SBP’s foreign exchange reserves witnessed a decline of $367 million on a weekly basis, closing at $10.2 billion. Amid, the geopolitical noise and cautious investor sentiment, the benchmark KSE-100 index declined 1.6 percent on a WoW basis.
Sector-wise negative contributions came from E&P (594pts), Commercial Banks (295pts), Technology (188pts), Power (140pts), and Pharmaceutical (116pts). Meanwhile, the sectors that contributed positively were Fertilizer (162pts), Food (74pts), and Automobile Assembler (23pts). Scrip-wise negative contributors were UBL (507pts), MARI (369pts), EFERT (225pts), PSO (181pts), and PPL (151pts). Whereas, scrip-wise positive contributions came from FFC (403pts), MEBL (237pts), MCB (120pts), SNGP (78pts) and NATF (54pts).
Foreigner buying was witnessed during this week clocked in at $2.09 million compared to a net sell of $4.01 million last week. Major buying was witnessed in OMCs ($2.7 million) followed by E&Ps ($ 1.1million). On the local front, selling was reported by Mutual Fund ($18.9 million) and Broker Propriety Trading ($2.02 million).
Other major news included, profit repatriation jumps to $1.72 billion in July-March FY25, IT exports surge by 23 percent in Q3FY2025, food exports increase to $5.75 billion in July-March, Pakistan receives $555 million external financing in March, and Ghani Chemical Industries begins operations with 275 TPD capacity.
JS Global said, that the sentiment turned negative in the latter half of the week owing to rising geopolitical uncertainty between Pakistan and India.
Political tensions also flared up domestically, as disputes over the canal project between Sindh and Punjab led to disruptions, including the blockage of key transportation routes.
IMF also revised Pakistan’s GDP growth forecast for FY25 downward to 2.6 percent, notably lower than the government’s projection of 3.6 percent. Furthermore, the Foreign Economic Assistance Report revealed Pakistan secured $12.5 billion in foreign loans during 9MFY25, falling short of the annual target of $19.2 billion.
In other news, the Finance Minister has requested his Chinese counterpart to roll over guaranteed Chinese debt and to increase the $4.3 billion currency swap agreement, in a bid to support declining foreign exchange reserves, which fell by $367 million WoW due to debt repayments.
Meanwhile, progress on structural reforms continued as the government officially relaunched the privatization process of PIA, inviting expressions of interest (EOIs) from both local and international investors for a majority stake in the national carrier, JS Global said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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