Bulls take charge as PSX shoots past 55,000 mark

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday soared to an all-time high after the KSE-100 index crossed the 55,000-mark. 

The benchmark KSE-100 index reached an intraday high of 55,506.32 points. However, it closed at 55,391.36 points after gaining 1129.94 points or 2.08%, up from yesterday's close of 54,261.42 points.

According to Arif Habib Limited on X, formerly Twitter, the KSE-100 index crossed the 55,000 level trading to reach an all-time high. 

Speaking to Thenews.com.pk, Arif Habib Limited (AHL) Head of Research Tahir Abbas said that the expectations of getting through with the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) first review have driven the market.

"Moreover, peaking out inflation and interest rates alongside expected monetary easing, and attractive valuations despite the market being at an all-time high is garnering investors sentiment at the local bourse," he added.

Head of Equities at Intermarket Securities Raza Jafri said the KSE-100 continues to make new highs on strong domestic institutional buying and reducing Pakistan Investment Bond (PIB) yields.

He also attributed the increase to higher weight for Pakistan in the coming review by global index provider MSCI and the high dividend-yielding stocks.

"The ongoing IMF review is the next key checkpoint," he added.

Overall trading volumes increased to 640.8 million shares compared with Thursday's tally of 482.7 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs21.1 billion.

The average traded volume at PSX witnessed a 2.4-year high, according to AHL.

The average daily traded volume increased by 32.4% day-on-day to 639 million shares — the highest since July 1, 2021, while the average daily traded value increased by 4.9% day-on-day to 21.1 billion shares — the highest since November 30, 2021.

Shares of 380 companies were traded. Of these, 260 stocks closed higher, 103 fell and 17 remained unchanged.

Cnergyico PK was the volume leader trading in 130.4 million shares, gaining Rs0.47 to close at Rs4.78. It was followed by Hum Network with 42.4 million shares, gaining Rs0.51 to close at Rs7.23, and Pak Refinery with 31 million shares, gaining Rs0.5 to close at Rs23.18.