KSE-100 closes above 97,000 for the first time as investors dismiss political noise

Records continued to tumble at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as the benchmark KSE-100 gained 1,782 points to close above 97,000 for the first time in history on Thursday.

A buying spree has pushed the KSE-100 to a series of record highs in recent months.

On Thursday, the index saw brief selling in the early hours, hitting an intra-day low of 95,300.21. However, a strong buying spree in the latter part of the day pushed it to settle at its highest-ever level.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 97,328.40, up by 1,781.94 points or 1.87%.

“This exceptional performance reflects a 55.9% gain CYTD in 2024 and a 9.5% month-to-date increase,” said Arif Habib Limited (AHL) in a note.

Buying was observed in automobile assemblers, commercial banks, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals and refinery sectors. Stocks including NRL, HASCOL, PSO, EFERT, FFBQL, HBL and NBP traded positively.

“Investor interest was particularly concentrated in the fertilizer sector, considered as defensive stocks i.e., not impacted much by market volatility, while also offering double-digit dividend yields,” Saad Hanif, analyst at Ismail Iqbal Securities, told Business Recorder.

Pakistan’s stock market has been on an upward trajectory in recent weeks, amid optimism which comes on account of positive macroeconomic indicators and projections of a further reduction in key policy rates.

Experts said the buying was witnessed as investors’ concerns regarding the political protest scheduled for November 24 eased.

“We think that the positive is likely to continue, given the key drivers of the present rally i.e. falling rates, the IMF programme going smoothly, and less noisy politics remain intact,” said Intermarket Securities in a note.

“Key checkpoint for the market will be the upcoming PTI protests slated to start by 24 November,” it added.

On Wednesday, profit-taking was observed at the PSX as the benchmark KSE-100 Index closed lower by 310 points to settle at 95,546.45.

Globally, Asian equities fell on Thursday after AI darling Nvidia disappointed investors with a subdued revenue forecast, while the dollar firmed and bitcoin hit a record high in anticipation of US President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed policies.

Prevailing geopolitical concerns following the escalating conflict in Ukraine earlier this week led safe-haven assets higher, including gold and government bonds.

The spotlight though was on earnings from the world’s most valuable firm Nvidia, which projected its slowest revenue growth in seven quarters, sending its shares lower.

Nasdaq futures slipped 0.47%, while S&P 500 futures eased 0.3%.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.23%, with tech heavy Taiwan stocks down 0.5%. Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.7%.

In another key development, Gautam Adani, the billionaire chair of Indian conglomerate Adani Group and one of the world’s richest people, was indicted in New York over his role in a $265 million bribery scheme, according to US prosecutors.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee recorded a marginal improvement against the US dollar, appreciating 0.03% in the inter-bank market on Thursday. At close, the currency settled at 277.96, a gain of Re0.08 against the greenback.

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 969.91 million from 1,138.41 million on Wednesday.

The value of shares declined to Rs35.17 billion from Rs37.48 billion in the previous session.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 95.56 million shares, followed by Pace (Pak) Ltd with 51.50 million shares, and Kohinoor Spinning with 48.26 million shares.

Shares of 457 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 249 registered an increase, 167 recorded a fall, while 41 remained unchanged.