KARACHI: Bulls returned to Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Wednesday amid improved economic conditions, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 827.18 points (+1.44 percent) to close at 58,198.76 points for the first time in history.
The market opened on a positive note and remained in the green throughout the session. Across-the-board buying was witnessed, with index-heavy sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, chemical, commercial banks, fertilizer, oil and gas exploration companies and OMCs trading in the green.
The ongoing bullish trend comes amid the country’s improved economic indicators and the interim government’s successful negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the first review, which will unlock $700 million in funding. Analysts expect that after the review Pakistan will be able to attract further inflows from its other multilateral and bilateral partners.
“One of the fastest but not unexpected recovery at PSX,” said Mohammed Sohail, CEO of Topline Securities, in a post on social media platform X. The expert shared that the bourse has delivered a 50% return in USD terms in six months. “And the good thing is… This recovery has just started. Market PE [price to earning ratio] of 3-4 times still at unbelievably low levels,” he added.
On the other hand, the Pakistani rupee gained 66 paisas (+0.19 percent) against the US dollar in the interbank market. The fifth consecutive improvement in the rupee’s value against the US dollar gave a boost to the market.
The benchmark index traded in a range of 987.42 points, showing an intraday high of 58,405.92 points and an intraday low of 57,418.50 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 566.31 points to close at 39,075.47 points.
Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index remained 256.57 million shares. The overall market volumes decreased to 596.22 million shares against 1,012.26 million shares traded a session earlier. Among scrips, WTL topped the volumes with 50.35 million shares, followed by FFBL (23.28 million) and FFL (23.28 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included WTL, FFBL, FFL, KEL, and SNGP, which formed around 27 percent of total volumes.
A total of 384 companies traded shares in the stock exchange against 377 companies a session earlier, out of which shares of 232 closed up, shares of 135 companies closed down while shares of 17 companies remained unchanged. A total of 98 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index against 96 a session earlier, out of which share prices of 72 companies closed up, 22 closed down and four remained unchanged.
The number of total trades increased to 242,103 from 258,203 a session earlier, while the value traded increased by Rs2.72 billion to Rs22.05 billion.
In terms of rupee, ISIL remained the top gainer with an increase of Rs60.47 (+7.5 percent) per share, closing at Rs866.72. The runner-up remained SIEM, the share price of which climbed up by Rs50.4 (+6.61 percent) to Rs812.4. RMPL remained the top loser with a decrease of Rs225.22 (-2.13 percent) per share, closing at Rs10,324.78 followed by PMPK, the share price of which fell by Rs20 (-3.73 percent) to close at Rs516 per share.
The major sectors taking the index towards north remained commercial banks (247 points), oil & gas exploration companies (146 points), oil & gas marketing companies (100 points), fertiliser (95 points), and cement (94 points). The major companies adding points to the index remained MEBL (89 points), BAHL (71 points), LUCK (70 points), PSO (64 points), and PPL (57 points).
The sectors taking the index towards south were automobile parts (11 points) and power generation and distribution (10 points). The major companies depriving the index of points remained THALL (11 points), ABL (10 points), and DAWH and KEL (7 points each). – TLTP