Banking sector witnessed heavy buying interest as the benchmark KSE-100 Index gained nearly 2,100 points to settle at a new record high of 78,802 during the first trading session post-Eid holidays on Thursday.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 78,801.53, an increase of 2,094.76 points or 2.73%. This is the fourth-largest single-day increase in KSE-100 history, said brokerage house Topline Securities.

It is pertinent to mention that the stock market was closed from June 17-19, 2024, on account of Eid-ul-Adha holidays.

On Thursday, buying was witnessed in key sectors including automobile assemblers, commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, and refinery.

Index-heavy stocks including OGDC, POL, SHEL, SNGPL, MEBL, HBL traded in the green. However, it was the banking sector that contributed most to the benchmark’s gain.

During the previous week, the PSX also witnessed a bullish trend and hit record highs after the government did not change the tax regime for the capital markets.

The benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 2,952.75 points on a week-on-week basis and closed at its then-highest level of 76,706.77.

“Positive sentiments continue amid hope that new budget will help in securing long-term International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal,” said Mohammed Sohail, CEO Topline Securities, in a note.

The market expert informed in the last one year, the stock market had gained over 95% in PKR terms, and 100% in USD terms.

The market has also been bullish as Pakistan is hopeful of finalising a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a longer, larger bailout.

In a key development, Fitch Ratings on Tuesday called Pakistan’s budget for fiscal year 2024-25 “ambitious”, but also stressed that it strengthens prospects for a deal with the IMF.

“It is uncertain whether fiscal targets will be hit, but even assuming only partial implementation of the budget, we forecast the fiscal deficit will narrow. This should reduce external pressures, albeit at a cost to growth,” it said in the commentary.

Globally, Indian shares opened marginally higher on Thursday, led by private sector banks after positive commentary on the sector from Macquarie, while a drop in pharma stocks capped gains.

The NSE Nifty 50 was up 0.06% at 23,531.30, while the S&P BSE Sensex added 0.17% to 77,477.91, as of 9:27 a.m. IST.

Kotak was the top Nifty 50 gainer.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee registered a marginal decline against the US dollar, depreciating 0.03% in the inter-bank market on Thursday. At close, the local unit settled at 278.6, a loss of Re0.09 against the greenback.

Volume on the all-share index increased to 452.63 million from 395.89 million a session ago.

The value of shares declined to Rs20.67 billion from Rs21.37 billion in the previous session.

Silk Bank Ltd was the volume leader with 53.58 million shares, followed by K-Electric Ltd with 23.11 million shares, and Habib Bank with 20.94 million shares.

Shares of 447 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 256 registered an increase, 133 recorded a fall, while 58 remained unchanged.