The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed another bullish session on Wednesday, as the benchmark KSE-100 Index closed above 86,000 for the first time in history amid investor optimism related to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.
The KSE-100 started the session positive, hitting an intra-day high of 86,513.46, followed by some selling in the second half.
In the final hours, the bulls regained momentum and helped the index close at a record high.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 86,205.66, up by 365.32 points or 0.43%.
Topline Securities, a brokerage house, said the bullish trend was fuelled by investor optimism following the successful SCO summit.
“The summit heightened expectations of regional political and economic stability, strengthening market confidence. This positive sentiment, combined with robust corporate earnings, ignited a broad-based rally across multiple sectors,” it said.
LPL, NPL, and NCPL hit their upper circuit limits after news broke that the government would release outstanding amount and also proposed four “take and pay” options for 18 Independent Power Producers (IPPs) established under the Power Generation Policies of 1994 and 2002, according to Topline.
“This development further uplifted sentiment in the power sector, adding momentum to the market’s rally.”
Major contributors to the index’s rise included PPL, HUBC, PSO, OGDC, and SEARL, which collectively added 368 points, the brokerage house said.
The two-day meeting of the Council of the Heads of Government (CHG) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states kicked off on Tuesday.
As many as seven prime ministers — a vice president, a foreign minister, among other senior leaders, are attending the event.
India’s Minister for External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar also arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday to attend the summit, making first such visit of any Indian official to Pakistan in nearly a decade.
On Tuesday, the KSE-100 had settled at 85,840.34, up by 578.96 points or 0.68%.
Globally, Asian equities fell on Wednesday after disappointing earnings from Europe’s biggest tech firm ASML dragged chip stocks around the world, while expectations that the Federal Reserve will take a modest rate cut path propped up the dollar.
Also weighing on the market was lacklustre earnings from French luxury giant LVMH that showed demand in China for luxury goods worsened, denting some of the enthusiasm around China spurred by stimulus measures.
Tech-heavy South Korean stocks fell 0.6%, while chip stocks led Japan’s Nikkei 1.8% lower. Taiwan stocks slipped 1.2%. That left MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down 0.32%.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee recorded a marginal decline against the US dollar, depreciating 0.04% in the inter-bank market on Wednesday. At close, the currency settled at 277.84, a loss of Re0.10 against the greenback.
Volume on the all-share index increased to 474.33 million from 422.11 million on Tuesday.
The value of shares rose to Rs26.94 billion from Rs24.47 billion in the previous session.
The Searle Company was the volume leader with 26.01 million shares, followed by Hub Power Co. with 24.34 million shares, and Hum Network with 22.57 million shares.
Shares of 445 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 227 registered an increase, 150 recorded a fall, while 68 remained unchanged.