The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Index closed the trading session on Wednesday with a gain of 133 points, after it briefly crossed 75,000 for the first time in history.
The KSE-100 started the session with a strong buying spree, hitting an intra-day high of 75,115.33. However, some selling in the latter hours pushed the index to an intra-day low of 74,440.88 before the bulls regained their position and helped the index close in the green.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 74,663.98, up by 132.79 points or 0.18%.
Buying was witnessed on Wednesday in key sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, chemical, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and refinery.
Index-heavy stocks including OGDC, PSO, SNGPL, HBL and NBP were trading in the green.
“Pakistan’s stock market has crossed a new high of 75k due to foreign fund buying,” Mohammed Sohail, CEO Topline Securities, said in a note.
“Last night in MSCI rebalancing, one company was added in Pakistan, and we estimate Pakistan’s weight will also increase, thereby having the potential to attract more passive foreign funds,” he added.
“Strong foreign investment in blue-chip stocks propelled the market to achieve new record highs. Moreover, market sentiment remained optimistic as investors reacted positively to the commencement of discussions between the Pakistani government and the IMF regarding a forthcoming Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme worth US$6-8billion over the next three years,” brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post-market report.
MSCI’s recent index review for May 2024 resulted in the addition of another Pakistani company, National Bank of Pakistan, to its MSCI frontier market index.
In the pharmaceutical sector, SEARL said its board had approved the sale of 100% shareholding control in Searle Pakistan Limited.
On Tuesday, the PSX continued its merry-run as the KSE-100 gained over 730 points to close at 74,531.19.
Meanwhile, others were of the view that optimism about discussions on a new International Monetary Fund programme is also driving the rally.
An IMF mission is in Pakistan to discuss the financial year 2025 budget, policies, and reforms under a potential new programme.
In a key development, Pakistan’s macroeconomic conditions improved during the first half of fiscal year 2024, the State of Pakistan’s (SBP) economy report for the first half of FY24 released on Tuesday said.
The report said the real GDP, driven by agriculture sector, grew by 1.7 percent in the first half of FY24 compared to 1.6 percent in the same period in FY23, and a contraction of 1.9 percent in the second half of FY23.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee saw a marginal decline against the US dollar, depreciating 0.03% in the inter-bank market on Wednesday. At close, the local unit settled at 278.26, a loss of Re0.08 against the greenback, as per the State Bank of Pakistan.
Volume on the all-share index marginally decreased to 572.42 million from 574.18 million a session ago.
The value of shares increased to Rs25.95 billion from Rs23.42 billion in the previous session.
The Searle Company was the volume leader with 41.14 million shares, followed by Hum Network with 35.68 million shares, and WorldCall Telecom with 32.67 million shares.
Shares of 382 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 148 registered an increase, 213 recorded a fall, while 21 remained unchanged.
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