The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued to set new records, as the benchmark KSE-100 Index gained another 1.23% on Monday to close near the 60,000-point level.
The KSE-100 witnessed range-bound trading in the first few hours of the session as it hit an intra-day low of 58,999.31. However, a strong buying-spree in the second part of the day helped the index gain ground.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 59,811.34, up by 724.99 points or 1.23%.
Heavy buying was witnessed in banks and construction sectors.
During the previous week, the PSX had hit its highest ever level. It closed with healthy gains on the back of aggressive buying by both local and foreign investors coupled with institutional support.
The benchmark index surged by 2,023.19 points on a week-on-week basis and crossed the 59,000 psychological level for the first time in its history to close at highest ever level of 59,086.35 points.
The stock market has been enjoying a bullish spree since after Pakistani authorities and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reached a staff-level agreement on the first review under the nine-month $3 billion Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) last week.
The government believes the IMF’s executive board will give its approval in December, after which Pakistan will receive the second tranche of the SBA.
The funding would also pave the way for inflows from other multilateral and bilateral partners.
Experts said that the market is also expecting a policy rate cut in the upcoming Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting scheduled to be held next month (December), which would improve the liquidity position at the bourse.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee continued to fall for the third successive session against the US dollar as it depreciated 0.09% in the inter-bank market on Monday. As per the State Bank of Pakistan, the local currency settled at 285.64, a decrease of Re0.27.
Volume on the all-share index inched down to 657.5 million from 658.4 million a session before.
The value of shares decreased to Rs20.2 billion from Rs22 billion in the previous session.
Kohinoor Spinning remained the volume leader with 109.4 million shares, followed by WorldCall Telecom with 43.3 million shares and Yousuf Weaving with 22.7 million shares.
Shares of 391 companies were traded on Monday, of which 245 registered an increase, 121 recorded a fall, while 25 remained unchanged.