KARACHI: Stocks continued to recover, and the benchmark KSE-100 index increased by 843 points. This reflects expectations of further cuts in the discount rate next week. A strong earnings outlook also contributed to investor sentiment.
Market participants are now focused on the upcoming Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting scheduled for Monday, where a 100-basis point cut is widely anticipated.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 index increased by 842.70 points, or 0.74 per cent, to 114,880.49 points, down from the 114,037.79 points recorded in the last session. The highest index of the day remained at 115,779.06 points, while the lowest level was recorded at 114,383.17 points.
Ahsan Mehanti, an analyst at Arif Habib Corp, said, “Stocks closed higher in the earning season rally at the PSX on strong earnings outlook.”
He said that banking and fertiliser scrips outperformed on likely strong payouts and the IMF proposal of aligning the CPP gas tariff with RLNG prices to ease the gas circular debt issue and the approval of a $20 billion CPF loan from the World Bank played a catalyst role in the further surge at the PSX.
The KSE-30 index increased by 330.62 points or 0.92 per cent to 36,124.98 points against 35,794.35 points.
Traded shares decreased by 43 million shares to 632.039 million shares from 675.540 million shares. The trading value rose to Rs37.8 billion from Rs30.469 billion. Market capital expanded to Rs14.116 trillion against Rs14.067 trillion. Of the 445 companies active in the session, 226 closed in green, 167 in red, and 52 remained unchanged.
Analyst Nabeel Haroon at Topline Securities said continuing its momentum, the KSE 100 Index gained 842 points to close at the 114,880 level (up by 0.74 per cent). “This gain can be attributed to the monetary policy meeting on Monday, where the market expects a cut in policy rate in the range of 100 to 150bps,” he said.
Major positive contributions to the index came from FFC, Engro, SYS, EFERT, HBL, UBL and SNGP, as they added 815 points to the index. Traded value-wise, FFC (Rs3.4 billion), SEARL (Rs2.95 billion), ENGROH (Rs1.73 billion), DGKC (Rs1.03 billion), PSO (Rs954 million), SNGP (Rs869 million) and MARI (Rs862 million) dominated the trading activity.
The highest increase was recorded in Sapphire Textile Mills Limited, which rose by Rs72.18 to Rs1,220 per share, followed by Pakistan Services Limited, which increased by Rs24.71 to Rs928.98 per share. A significant decline was noted in Hoechst Pakistan Limited, which fell by Rs199.33 to Rs3,092.46 per share; Unilever Pakistan Foods Limited followed it, which closed lower by Rs90.01 to Rs21,599.99 per share.
Brokerage Arif Habib Ltd said the PSX witnessed a decent recovery at the end of the week, closing just below the 115,000 level and limiting the week-on-week decline to 0.4 per cent.
Looking ahead, expectations remain optimistic, with the KSE-100 index projected to surpass the 117,000 mark and potentially retest its all-time highs in the coming week. Cnergyico PK remained the volume leader with 61.454 million shares, which closed lower by 22 paisas to Rs7.71 per share. Sui South Gas, with 57.677 million shares, followed it, which closed higher by Rs3.82 to Rs43.92 per share.
Other significant turnover stocks included WorldCall Telecom, The Searle Company, Fauji Cement, Citi Pharma Ltd, Ghani Chemical, Waves Corp Ltd., Maple Leaf and Hascol Petrol.
In the futures market, 300 companies recorded trading, 174 of which increased, 123 decreased and 3 remained unchanged.