Bullish run continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), as the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at a new historic high level of 54,261 level amid record activity on Wednesday.

Led by institutional buying, the benchmark index crossed the 54,000 level during the intra-day trading. Maintaining momentum throughout the day, the KSE-100 Index settled at 54,261.42 level, an increase of 525.69 points or 0.98%.

After hitting the then-record intra-day high, profit-taking erased gains at the PSX as the benchmark KSE-100 Index was down by 125 points to settle at 53,735.73 at the end of trading on Tuesday.

Across-the-board buying was witnessed on Wednesday, especially among the index-heavy sectors with automobile assemblers, cement, chemical, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies and OMCs trading in the green.

Analysts said that the bullish trend is attributed to expectations of a decline in policy rate in the coming weeks.

“Expectations building that interest rates may come down sooner than expected after fall in global oil prices,” said Mohammed Sohail, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Topline Securities, said in a note.

“This will help in easing inflation in Pakistan,” he added.

Moreover, improved macroeconomic indicators including a decline in the country’s current account deficit, which was reduced to $8 million in September 2023 as compared to the CAD of $360 million in the same month in 2022, and a drop in CPI-based inflation has also propelled the positive sentiment at the bourse.

The traded value at the PSX also reached a two-year high.

“The average daily traded value at PSX experienced a 2-year high and witnessed Rs20.1 billion, +10% DoD (highest since 30 Nov’21),” said Arif Habib Limited (AHL) in a note.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee registered losses against the US dollar for the 13th consecutive session as it depreciated 0.18% in the inter-bank market on Wednesday. As per the State Bank of Pakistan, the local currency settled at 286.90, a decrease of Re0.51.

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 482.7 million from 506 million a session before.

The value of shares rose to Rs20.1 billion from Rs18.2 billion in the previous session.

Pak Refinery remained the volume leader with 40.2 million shares, followed by Cnergyico PK with 38.4 million shares and Hum Network with 31.1 million shares.

Shares of 374 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 234 registered an increase, 118 recorded a fall, while 22 remained unchanged.