A positive run was witnessed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as the benchmark KSE-100 Index registered an increase of over 330 points on Thursday.
The KSE-100 saw bullish momentum since the start of the session, helped by reports of circular debt scheme. It hit an intra-day high of 47,994.19. However, late-session profit-taking curbed the gains.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 47,750.77, up by 332.14 points or 0.70%.
On Wednesday, the KSE-100 Index closed flat, after witnessing range-bound trading amid lack of fresh triggers.
However, across-the-board buying was witnessed on Thursday among index-heavy sectors with automobile assemblers, cement, chemical, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, pharmaceuticals, OMCs and refinery sectors trading in the green.
Heavy buying was witnessed in the power and banking sectors during trading.
Experts said the run comes amid reports that a formal contact had been made between the caretaker government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) regarding the circular debt management plan.
The IMF representative in Pakistan on Wednesday said that the reform process to which the government had agreed required the country to keep all state-owned enterprises (SOEs) under finance ministry oversight.
“Following through on the previously agreed 2021 triage reform process, and other governance and private sector reforms, is important to durably attract foreign investment,” IMF’s Esther Perez Ruiz said in a statement.
The IMF reached a staff-level pact with Pakistan in June on a $3 billion stand-by arrangement (SBA), a decision long awaited by the South Asian nation which had been teetering on the brink of default.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee registered a new record low as it dropped below the 300 level for the first time against the US dollar in the inter-bank market on Thursday. At close, the rupee settled at 300.22, a decrease of Re0.58 or 0.19%, as per the State Bank of Pakistan.
Volume on the all-share index increased to 251.7 million from 188.68 million on Wednesday.
The value of shares rose to Rs12.8 billion from Rs8.8 billion in the previous session.
Faysal Bank remained the volume leader with 21.92 million shares, followed by Nishat ChunPow with 15.28 million shares and Gul Ahmed with 14.66 million shares.
Shares of 318 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 175 registered an increase, 115 recorded a fall, and 28 remained unchanged.