KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) maintained a jubilant streak throughout the week ending March 20, 2025, closing at an all-time high. This surge was driven by optimism surrounding a potential staff-level agreement for the release of the second EFF tranche, valued at $1 billion.
The benchmark KSE-100 index surged 2,906 points, or 2.5 percent, on a weekly basis, closing at 118,442.18 points compared to 115,536.17 points in the previous week.
Trading activity experienced a significant boost, with average daily volumes on the ready counter jumping 50.5 percent to 507.64 million shares, up from 337.21 million shares in the prior week.
The average daily traded value on the ready counter rose by 42.7 percent, reaching Rs 31.48 billion compared to Rs 22.06 billion in the previous week.
Total market capitalization increased by Rs 274 billion to Rs 14.399 trillion end of the last week up from Rs 14.125 trillion a week earlier.
BRIndex100 gained 310.6 points during the last week to close at 12,590.14 points up from 12,279.57 points with average daily turnover of 458.20 million shares. BRIndex30 surged by 1,684 points on week-on-week basis to close at 39,135.21 points with average daily trading volumes of 333 million shares.
According to AHL Research the positive sentiment during the last week was supported by expectation of a staff-level agreement between Pakistan and IMF for the first review of EFF program, which is a road to disbursement of second tranche of $ 1.1 billion.
In addition to this, IMF shared a draft of the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies with the Govt., which signalled progress. Furthermore, potential resolution of power circular debt charged up the overall investors’ sentiment.
In addition to this, the IMF has given a nod to the government to recalibrate its tax collection target for FY25 to PKR 12.35 trillion down from Rs 12.97 trillion. On the economic front, the current account deficit declined by 97 percent MoM to $12 million in Feb’25. Meanwhile, LSM declined by 1.2 percent YoY in Jan’25.
SBP reserves climbed up by $49 million, arriving at $11.1 billion. Albeit, the market closed at highest ever level of 118,442 points, depicting a surge of 2,906 point or 2.5 percent WoW.
Sector-wise positive contributions came from E&Ps (1,086pts), technology (416pts), power (273pts), OMCs (213pts), and cement (202pts). Meanwhile, the sectors that contributed negatively were fertilizer (105pts), and insurance (6pts). Scrip-wise positive contributors were MARI (696pts), SYS (328pts), HUBCO (251pts), OGDC (186pts), and lucky (184pts). Whereas, scrip-wise negative contributions came from EFERT (124pts), UBL (60pts), Fatima (29pts), COLG (18pts), and HBL (16pts).
Foreigner selling continued during this week clocked in at $7.96 million compared to a net sell of $.61 million last week. Major selling was witnessed in Commercial Banks $2.9 million followed by E&P $2.3 million. On the local front, buying was reported by Banks / DFIs $176.4 million and Other Organizations $1.5 million.
Other major news were Govt raises Rs392 billion via T-bill auction, Mari Energies makes second gas and condensate discovery at Spinwam-1 well, Big Bird Foods to install 3MW solar power system, Amreli Steels extends suspension of operations at SITE Rolling Mill, and Govt sets sugar price at Rs164/kg.
Analysts at JS said the week commenced with the completion of the IMF mission’s visit to Pakistan for the first review of the ongoing $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF), though a staff-level agreement remains awaited.
Pakistan is also in the process of securing an arrangement under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) with the IMF for additional financing to address climate change impacts.
Meanwhile, the government is planning a reduction in the power tariff by up to Rs8/KWh, mainly driven by revisions in IPP contracts. Additionally, the government kept petroleum prices unchanged, offsetting the impact of lower ex refinery prices while increasing petroleum development levy (PDL) by Rs10/ltr to Rs70/ltr.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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