KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained volatile during the week ending May 2, 2025 amid escalating geopolitical tension between Pakistan and India.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index shed 1,355.41 points, or 1.2 percent, on a week-on-week basis, closing at 114,114 points compared to 115,469 points in the previous week. Average trading volumes declined by 29 percent week-on-week, reaching 424 million shares from 599 million shares.
Meanwhile, the average daily traded value on the ready counter fell by 6.2 percent to Rs 27.48 billion compared to Rs 29.30 billion in the prior week. Total market capitalization also declined by Rs 288 billion, settling at Rs 13.808 trillion versus Rs 14.096 trillion a week earlier.
BRIndex100 also lost 164 points during the last week to close at 12,145 points compared to 12,310 points a week earlier. Average daily turnover at BRIndex100 was 350 million shares. BRIndex30 also declined by 1,369 points on a week-on-week basis to settle at 35,341 points with average daily trading volumes of 216.75 million shares.
According to JS Global, the KSE-100 Index dropped by 1.2 percent WoW mainly due to negative sentiment owing to rising geopolitical tensions between Pakistan and India. However, sentiment improved slightly on the last trading day after U.S. diplomats called for restraint, easing escalation fears.
Pakistan’s inflation rate fell to 0.3 percent in Apr-2025-the lowest in over six decades, down from 17.3 percent last year. Additionally, falling global oil prices led the government to decrease petrol and HSD prices by Rs2 per litre.
Furthermore, the IMF announced that they will consider Pakistan’s request for approval of a $2.3 billion package on May 9, including $1.3 billion for climate resilience and sustainable development.
Pakistan’s tax collection target fell short by Rs833 billion in 10MFY25, breaching the IMF-set tax shortfall limit by Rs193 billion. Pakistan’s sovereign dollar bonds fell over 3 cents amid escalating tensions with India.
In other news, the government has decided to reduce its power procurement plans from 14,000MW to 7,000MW, aiming to save Rs4.7 trillion. In the recent T-bill auction, SBP raised Rs562 billion against a target of Rs400 billion. The cut-off yield for one-month T-bills decreased by 17bps to 12.1492 percent, while the yields on three-month, six-month, and twelve-month T-bills remained relatively flat.
Nabeel Haroon VP International Equity Sales Topline Securities said that KSE 100 Index declined WoW basis, which can be attributed to regional geopolitical tension between India & Pakistan after an attack last week.
Apart from it, this week was dominated with March quarter result announcements which were largely lower than market expectation, which also weighed down on investor sentiment.
Other development during the outgoing week were T-Bill auction held during the week in which participation of Rs1,505 billion was seen with government raising Rs562 billion as against target of Rs400 billion and maturity of Rs698 billion; yields largely remains unchanged except for 1-month where yield decreased by 17bps to 12.149 percent, Pakistan’s CPI for April 2025 clocking in at 0.3 percent compared to last month of 0.7 percent and Pakistan’s trade deficit for April 2025 came in at $3.39 billion (up by 55 percent MoM), marking the highest monthly trade deficit in 3 years.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025