KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a historic bullish session on Monday as investors aggressively responded to the federal government’s budget measures alongside reports of a preliminary peace understanding between the United States and Iran, which significantly eased global oil supply disruption fears and strengthened broad-based risk appetite across the market.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index staged a powerful rally of 4,639.93 points, or 2.69 percent, to close at 177,039.83 points compared to the previous close of 172,399.90 points. The index remained strongly positive throughout the session, touching an intraday high of 177,176.73 points and a low of 175,085.79 points, reflecting sustained institutional participation and aggressive buying across heavyweight stocks.
Business Recorder’s BRIndex data reflected strong across-the-board participation, with BRIndex100 closing at 19,635.11, up 567.42 points or 2.98 percent on a volume of 744.73 million shares, while BRIndex30 ended at 71,893.90, gaining 2,481.06 points or 3.57 percent on turnover of 486.26 million shares.
According to Topline Securities, the session was driven by an “all is well sentiment” as investors welcomed budget measures and geopolitical easing, with major contribution coming from UBL, HUBC, LUCK, ENGROH and FFC, which collectively added around 1,790 points to the index.
Market liquidity expanded sharply as ready market turnover climbed to 988.08 million shares from 890.80 million in the previous session. The value of traded shares also surged to Rs63.48 billion compared to Rs41.99 billion earlier.
Market capitalization recorded a substantial expansion, rising to Rs19.733 trillion from Rs19.120 trillion, reflecting an increase of approximately Rs612.83 billion.
Market breadth remained decisively positive across all segments. In the ready market, 349 stocks closed higher, 119 declined, while 26 remained unchanged out of 494 active companies.
Heavy turnover was observed in Kohinoor Spinning, which led the session with 64.13 million shares and closed at Rs6.26. Maple Leaf Cement followed with 45.55 million shares, closing at Rs98.13, while Bank of Punjab saw 38.64 million shares traded, ending at Rs35.73.
On the price performance front, PIA Holding Company Limited (B) emerged as the top gainer in absolute terms, rising Rs691 to close at Rs17,869, followed by Ghandhara Industries, which gained Rs62.07 to settle at Rs1,003.30. On the downside, Unilever Pakistan Foods declined Rs142 to Rs25,726, while Sapphire Fibres fell Rs14.67 to Rs1,132.65.
Sector-wise momentum was broad-based, led by the BR Cement Index which surged 657.16 points or 5.34 percent to 12,973.50 on 114.32 million shares. The BR Power Generation and Distribution Index rose 988.43 points to 29,219.61, while the BR Tech & Communication Index increased 124.42 points to 4,004.66.
The BR Commercial Banks Index added 1,435.06 points to 59,121.76, the BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 622.10 points to 28,023.19, and the BR Oil & Gas Index advanced 267.65 points to 15,258.20.
Market participants are expected to watch macroeconomic indicators, IMF-related developments, inflation trajectory, corporate earnings, and global commodity prices for near-term direction, with continued sensitivity to policy signals and regional tensions.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026