KSE-100 gains another 367 points as positive momentum persists

The Pakistan stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed another positive session on Friday, as its benchmark KSE-100 Index closed higher by 367 points on a momentum lifted by rupee’s recovery against the US dollar and result announcements.

The KSE-100 broke the day higher and remained largely in the positively territory, hitting intra-day high of 50,952.67.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 50,731.87, up by 366.72 points or 0.73%.

Commercial banks, power generation and distribution, fertiliser, and cement sectors were major contributors in the session, brokerage house Ismail Iqbal Securities stated in its post-market report.

On Thursday, the KSE-100 closed above 50,000 after six years with massive 934-point gain.

Experts attributed the gain at the bourse to an appreciation of the local currency and satisfactory results announced by the companies in the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

Earlier, brokerage house Topline Securities had predicted that the bourse could potentially come close to the 50,000 level near the general elections, assuming there is a “smooth election process” and the IMF approves the next tranche of the Stand-By Arrangement in November.

“We believe the Pakistan market can potentially experience an 8-10% pre-election rally thereby, has the potential to reach near 50k assuming a smooth election process and the approval of the IMF tranche in November,” said Topline Securities then.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee remained largely stable against the US dollar, as it appreciated 0.003% in the inter-bank market on Friday. As per the State Bank of Pakistan, the domestic currency settled at 278.80 after an increase of Re0.01 in the inter-bank market.

Volume on the all-share index slightly increased to 430.05 million from 427.47 million a day before.

The value of shares edged higher to Rs14.61 billion from Rs14.59 billion in the previous session.

Pak Refinery remained the volume leader with 42.4 million shares, followed by K-Electric Ltd. with 35.7 million shares and WorldCall Telecom with 31 million shares.

Shares of 350 companies were traded on Friday, of which 188 registered an increase, 145 recorded a fall, while 17 remained unchanged.