Stocks rebound on late-session buying, KSE-100 closes nearly 1,900 points higher

Expectations of a significant policy rate cut in the upcoming Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting fuelled a buying spree at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as the benchmark KSE-100 Index closed higher by nearly 1,900 points on Friday.

The KSE-100 witnessed range-bound trading in the first half of the session, but a strong buying spree in the latter hours pushed the index to an intra-day high of 91,133.28.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 90,859.85, up by 1,893.08 points or 2.13%.

Earlier, buying momentum was led by key sectors including cement, fertilizer, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and power generation. Index-heavy stocks including OGDC, PPL, SNGPL and SSGC traded in the green.

The stock market has been on an upward trajectory in recent weeks due to strong corporate earnings, and expectations of a policy rate cut.

The central bank’s MPC is scheduled to meet on Monday, November 04.

In a key development, Pakistan’s headline inflation clocked in at 7.2% on a year-on-year basis in October 2024, higher than the reading in September 2024 when it stood at 6.9%, showed Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data released on Friday.

On Thursday, profit-taking dominated proceedings at the PSX, pulling the KSE-100 Index down by 1,320 points, which settled at 88,966.76.

Globally, Asian markets mostly fell Friday, tracking a global slide in stocks fuelled by tame tech earnings and investor jitters less than a week before neck-and-neck US elections.

Analysts have been watching the rise in US Treasury bond yields, with expectations the Federal Reserve may back off major interest rate cuts amid US economic data that has generally been solid.

Just days away from the US election on Tuesday, data showed the Fed’s preferred inflation measure cooled further in September – and now sits just above the central bank’s long-term target of two percent.

But the figures failed to boost sentiment, despite being a positive sign for future rate cuts.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee registered marginal improvement against the US dollar, appreciating 0.05% in the inter-bank market on Friday. At close, the currency settled at 277.70, a gain of Re0.15 against the greenback.

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 465.86 million from 546.27 million on Thursday.

The value of shares declined to Rs23.09 billion from Rs24.12 billion in the previous session.

Silk Bank Ltd was the volume leader with 62.53 million shares, followed by K-Electric Ltd with 57.57 million shares, and WorldCall Telecom with 27.21 million shares.

Shares of 430 companies were traded on Friday, of which 220 registered an increase, 156 recorded a fall, while 54 remained unchanged.