No stopping the bulls: PSX hits historic 60,000 milestone

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) made another record on Tuesday when its benchmark KSE-100 index breached 60,000 points level on the back of the signing of an investment-related Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The arrival of the next tranche of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in December also infused the positive sentiments in the market. PSX’s KSE-100 index closed the session at 60,730.26 points with a daily gain of 918.92 points or 1.54pc. The index remained positive throughout the day, showing an intraday high of 60,845.61 (+1,034.26) and a low of 60,023.86 (+212.51) points.

The total volume of the KSE-100 Index was 336.6 million shares. Analysts attributed the bullish momentum to positive triggers including expected inflows from IMF and friendly countries and expected cut in the interest rate. They particularly attributed the bullish sentiments to the latest development wherein Pakistan signed a multi-billion dollar Memorandum of Understandings (MoU) with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). They said favourable economic reforms, government initiatives promoting business growth, and a stable investment climate have contributed significantly to the market’s bullish momentum. “Stocks closed at new all-time high as investors eye multi-billion dollar MOUs unlocking projects under SIFC initiatives during PM visit to UAE and IMF support receipts next month,” said Ahsan Mehanti, an analyst at Arif Habib Corp. He said that reports of regional exports growing by 14.3 YoY for Jul -Oct ’23, and easing geo-political uncertainty played a catalyst role in the record surge in PSX. Topline Securities in its post-trading note said bullish rampage continued at Pakistan Equities and it seems like there is no hurdle, psychological or technical resistance level which can take the bulls by the horns. It’s only the break between the closing & opening bells (of the next day) where bulls take some rest. That’s exactly what happened today, Bulls started to rule every nook & corner at PSX just after the opening bell rang. Investors resumed their shopping and did cherry picking of banking, energy, cement & fertilizer stocks. Resultantly, UBL, MCB, HBL, HUBC & LUCK contributed positively by adding 589 points. On the other hand, SYS, MARI & GHGL witnessed some profit taking and they cumulatively lost 78 points. According to the market summary, over 778 million shares were traded at the bourse. WTL led the volumes chart with trading of over 57.4 million shares. Of the 100 index companies 48 closed up, 33 closed down, 2 were unchanged, while 17 remained untraded. KSE-100 index was supported by Commercial Banks with 536.46, Cement with 108.87, Power Generation & Distribution with 93.09, Fertilizer with 59.12, and Refinery with 43.99 points. Companies adding points to the index were UBL with 191.44, MCB with 109.07, HBL with 101.79, HUBC with 97.08, and LUCK with 89.05 points. Sectors that contributed negatively were Technology And Communication with 22.89, Glass and Ceramics with 9.35, Paper and Board with 6.89, Food and Personal Care Products with 6.55, and Automobile Parts and accessories with 5.43 points. Companies dragging the index lower were SYS at 35.81, MARI at 30.1, GHGL at 12.19, DAWH at 6.95 and NATF at 6.94 points.