The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) saw a return of positivity with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining over 1,400 points during trading on Friday.
The KSE-100 witnessed some selling in the first few hours, hitting an intra-day low of 113,571.96.
However, the bulls regained their grip over the market and took the index to an intra-day high of 115,356.12.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 115,272.08, up by 1,435.34 points or 1.26%.
Earlier, buying was witnessed in key sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, fertilizer, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refinery. Index-heavy stocks including NRL, PRL, HUBCO, PSO, SNGP, SSGC, MARI, OGDC, ENGRO, HBL and UBL traded in the green.
“We think the market was concerned about the potential release of Imran Khan from jail, which lead to political uncertainty,” said Intermarket Securities.
“Conversions at mutual funds have also slowed down. We think the market will remain range-bound at this stage, until there are fresh new triggers,” it added.
Pakistan’s current account posted a surplus of $582 million in December 2024, a massive jump of 109% when compared with the surplus of $279 million in the same month of the previous year, data released on Friday by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed.
This was the fifth consecutive month of a current account surplus.
Net Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Pakistan grew 20% during the first half of the ongoing fiscal year (1HFY25), clocking in at $1.329 billion.
Pakistan’s Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER), a measure of the value of a currency against a weighted average of several foreign currencies, increased to 103.7 in December 2024, up from 103.02 (revised) in November 2024.
In a key development on the political front, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founding chairman Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi on Friday were convicted in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust case with the PTI founder being sentenced to 14 years in prison and a seven-year jail term handed to his wife.
On Thursday, PSX witnessed a mixed trend and, after moving in both directions, closed on a negative note as investors opted to offload their holdings on available margins. The benchmark KSE-100 Index declined by 658.96 points, or 0.58%, to 113,836.74 points.
Globally, the tone in global stocks turned weaker on Friday as Asian shares tracked overnight losses on Wall Street. Bond yields slid amid a revival in bets that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in June.
Japanese equities were standout underperformers, with the Nikkei on course for its worst week in three months. The yen buckled under the weight of a resurgent yen amid rising bets on a Bank of Japan rate hike next week.
Chinese stocks drew some support after official figures showed the economy expanded 5.4% in the fourth quarter year-on-year, much stronger than expected. This puts full-year 2024 growth at 5%, bang in the centre of Beijing’s target.
Mainland Chinese blue chips were up 0.3% as of 0207 GMT, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.14%.
China’s yuan strengthened slightly to 7.34 per dollar in offshore trading.
MSCI’s world index edged down 0.05%. Its broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares lost 0.4%.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee marginally improved against the US dollar, appreciating 0.05% in the inter-bank market on Friday. At close, the currency settled at 278.71 after a gain of Re0.15 against the greenback.
Volume on the all-share index increased to 549.58 million from 469.44 million on Thursday.
The value of shares declined to Rs35.93 billion from Rs24.98 billion in the previous session.
WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 101.93 million shares, followed by Hub Power Co. with 36.89 million shares, and Hascol Petrol with 32.50 million shares.
Shares of 461 companies were traded on Friday, of which 264 registered an increase, 128 recorded a fall, while 69 remained unchanged.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) saw a return of positivity with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining over 1,400 points during trading on Friday.
The KSE-100 witnessed some selling in the first few hours, hitting an intra-day low of 113,571.96.
However, the bulls regained their grip over the market and took the index to an intra-day high of 115,356.12.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 115,272.08, up by 1,435.34 points or 1.26%.
Earlier, buying was witnessed in key sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, fertilizer, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refinery. Index-heavy stocks including NRL, PRL, HUBCO, PSO, SNGP, SSGC, MARI, OGDC, ENGRO, HBL and UBL traded in the green.
“We think the market was concerned about the potential release of Imran Khan from jail, which lead to political uncertainty,” said Intermarket Securities.
“Conversions at mutual funds have also slowed down. We think the market will remain range-bound at this stage, until there are fresh new triggers,” it added.
Pakistan’s current account posted a surplus of $582 million in December 2024, a massive jump of 109% when compared with the surplus of $279 million in the same month of the previous year, data released on Friday by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed.
This was the fifth consecutive month of a current account surplus.
Net Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Pakistan grew 20% during the first half of the ongoing fiscal year (1HFY25), clocking in at $1.329 billion.
Pakistan’s Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER), a measure of the value of a currency against a weighted average of several foreign currencies, increased to 103.7 in December 2024, up from 103.02 (revised) in November 2024.
In a key development on the political front, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founding chairman Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi on Friday were convicted in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust case with the PTI founder being sentenced to 14 years in prison and a seven-year jail term handed to his wife.
On Thursday, PSX witnessed a mixed trend and, after moving in both directions, closed on a negative note as investors opted to offload their holdings on available margins. The benchmark KSE-100 Index declined by 658.96 points, or 0.58%, to 113,836.74 points.
Globally, the tone in global stocks turned weaker on Friday as Asian shares tracked overnight losses on Wall Street. Bond yields slid amid a revival in bets that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in June.
Japanese equities were standout underperformers, with the Nikkei on course for its worst week in three months. The yen buckled under the weight of a resurgent yen amid rising bets on a Bank of Japan rate hike next week.
Chinese stocks drew some support after official figures showed the economy expanded 5.4% in the fourth quarter year-on-year, much stronger than expected. This puts full-year 2024 growth at 5%, bang in the centre of Beijing’s target.
Mainland Chinese blue chips were up 0.3% as of 0207 GMT, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.14%.
China’s yuan strengthened slightly to 7.34 per dollar in offshore trading.
MSCI’s world index edged down 0.05%. Its broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares lost 0.4%.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee marginally improved against the US dollar, appreciating 0.05% in the inter-bank market on Friday. At close, the currency settled at 278.71 after a gain of Re0.15 against the greenback.
Volume on the all-share index increased to 549.58 million from 469.44 million on Thursday.
The value of shares declined to Rs35.93 billion from Rs24.98 billion in the previous session.
WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 101.93 million shares, followed by Hub Power Co. with 36.89 million shares, and Hascol Petrol with 32.50 million shares.
Shares of 461 companies were traded on Friday, of which 264 registered an increase, 128 recorded a fall, while 69 remained unchanged.
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