KSE-100 Index gains nearly 1,900 points, settles above 117,000

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) kicked off the new year with a bang, as the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled above the 117,000 level after a gain of nearly 1,900 points on Wednesday.

Bullish momentum persisted throughout the trading session, with the benchmark index hitting an intra-day high of 117,341.03.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 117,008.08, an increase of 1,881.18 points or 1.63%.

“The market maintained an upward trajectory, supported by strong buying activity from local institutions,” brokerage house Topline Securities said.

Buying interest was observed in key sectors, including automobiles, cement, commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation, and pharmaceuticals.

Index-heavy stocks including HUBCO, PSO, MARI, OGDC, ENGRO, MCB and MEBL traded in the green.

Investor interest has been fuelled by expectations of a further cut in policy rate in the upcoming Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), which is anticipated later this month.

In a key development, Pakistan’s headline inflation clocked in at 4.1% on a year-on-year basis in December 2024, a reading that was also below that of November 2024 when it stood at 4.9%, showed Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data on Wednesday.

On a month-on-month basis, CPI increased by 0.1% in December 2024 as compared to 0.5% in the previous month and an increase of 0.8% in December 2023.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday rolled out ‘Uraan Pakistan’, a five-year national economic plan aimed at steering the country toward sustainable growth.

On Tuesday, the KSE-100 closed the last trading day of 2024 nearly flat, settling at 115,126.90, down by 132.09 points or 0.11.

The PSX experienced a remarkable comeback in the year 2024, following years of lacklustre performance. Stocks surged by 84.34%, making it the second-best-performing market globally, analysts said.

Over the last 18 months, the PSX has been the top-performing market in the world with a 178% gain. This represents the strongest performance in Pakistan’s 77-year history over such a short period.

“Despite this record-breaking rally, Pakistan stocks are still trading at an average forward P/E ratio of 6.3x, signalling the significant potential for further growth, “ said Muhammad Sohial, leading analyst and CEO of Topline Securities.

Internationally, India’s benchmark indexes were muted on Wednesday, the first session of 2025, with analysts expecting markets to drift sideways until the quarterly earnings season starts next week.

The Nifty 50 dipped by 0.11% at 23,617.75 points as of 9:35am IST, while the BSE Sensex was off 0.09% at 78,057.81.

Other Asian markets were also muted, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index down 0.1% as elevated U.S. Treasury yields continue to weigh on emerging markets.

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 956.27 million from 1,236.87 million on Tuesday.

However, the value of shares rose to Rs46.44 billion from Rs44.22 billion in the previous session.

Cnergyico PK was the volume leader with 71.00 million shares, followed by Pak Int.Bulk with 62.83 million shares, and B.O.Punjab with 45.41 million shares.

Shares of 462 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 258 registered an increase, 161 recorded a fall, while 43 remained unchanged.