Positive sentiments led by political clarity over the formation of a new government were witnessed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as the benchmark KSE-100 index crossed the 65,000 level during trading on Friday.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 65,325.69, an increase of 747.16 points or 1.16%.
Earlier, the KSE-100 hit an intra-day high of 65,472.58.
A mixed trend was witnessed among index-heavy sectors with Engro, PSO, and some auto sector stocks seeing an upsurge.
Experts believe the cooling of political temperatures is driving the stock market as a coalition government led by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) is expected to take charge of the country’s affairs.
The National Assembly (NA) elected on Friday Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Ayaz Sadiq as its speaker.
Sadiq, who has previously also held the post, was up against the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) Malik Aamir Dogar for NA speaker.
In a key development, Caretaker Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar, in a Ministry of Finance report, said the new government must complete the last review of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Stand-By Arrangement (SBA).
“Perhaps, more important is that the new government reach an early agreement with the IMF staff on a new medium-term facility, providing an anchor to carry out the difficult reforms.
“To achieve this, the new government must take forward critical reforms on restructuring of the FBR, privatisation of the loss-making SOEs including PIA, and the implementation of the SOE policy for improved governance and financial performance,” read the report.
On Thursday, bulls continued to make further inroads at the PSX as the benchmark KSE-100 index gained nearly 1.4% to settle at 64,578.52.
Globally, Asian markets were largely higher on Friday following Wall Street gains driven by tech rallies and key US inflation data that met investors’ expectations.
While AI optimism helped buoy trading in New York, global markets diverged over questions about when the Fed may begin cutting interest rates.
Fresh personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index figures helped shore up confidence those long-awaited cuts were likely in the offing this year.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee recorded a marginal decline against the US dollar, depreciating 0.03% in the inter-bank market on Friday. At close, the local unit settled at 279.19, a loss of Re0.08, against the greenback, as per the State Bank of Pakistan.
Volume on the all-share index decreased to 344.22 million from 424.04 million a session ago.
The value of shares declined to Rs13.38 billion from Rs17.05 billion in the previous session.
Kohinoor Spinning was the volume leader with 71.35 million shares, followed by K-Electric Ltd with 19.42 million shares, and Treet Corp with 17.47 million shares.
Shares of 350 companies were traded on Friday, of which 172 registered an increase, 158 recorded a fall, while 20 remained unchanged.
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