Massive buying rally was seen at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index closing the day above 168,000 for the first time in history.
Buying momentum was observed through most of the trading session, pushing the KSE-100 to an intra-day high of 168,619.32
At close, the benchmark index settled at 168,489.62, an increase of 2,849.29 points or 1.72%.
Analysts said that equities had increasingly emerged as the preferred investment avenue for local investors.
“Investors are preferring equities as an asset class due to lack of returns from other asset classes and taxation incentives,” Samiullah Tariq, Head of Research at Pak Kuwait Investment Company Limited, told Business Recorder.
Brokerage house Topline Securities said the rally was largely fueled by continued aggressive buying from mutual funds, which sustained investor confidence and propelled market sentiment.
The banking sector emerged as the standout performer, with MEBL, UBL, BAHL, HBL, and NBP collectively contributing 1,827 points to the index. However, overall gains were modestly trimmed by profit-taking in LUCK, HUBC, and SYS, which together pulled back 192.05 points, it added.
In a major corporate development, Gillette Pakistan Limited announced that its parent company, Procter & Gamble (P&G), would discontinue its business operations in Pakistan as part of a global restructuring plan.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, in an address on Thursday, said Pakistan was ‘well-positioned’ to repay a $1.3 billion Eurobond maturing in April next year.
On Wednesday, the PSX closed on a mixed yet steady note as volatile intra-day movements kept investors cautious. The KSE-100 Index settled at 165,640.34 points, gaining 146.75 points or 0.09%.
Globally, tech shares rallied on Thursday, driving Asia stock indexes higher, while gold hovered near a record high and the dollar languished as a weak US labour market report bolstered bets for Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.
The US government shutdown made it a near certainty that crucial monthly payrolls data wouldn’t be released on Friday, but overnight the private ADP employment report showed the economy unexpectedly shed jobs in September, with the prior month also revised to a decline.
Even without the benefit of official labour data, the dismal ADP report had traders pricing in quarter-point Fed rate cuts at each of the two remaining policy meetings of the year as almost a done deal.
The promise of an easier policy environment helped lift Wall Street to fresh record highs on Wednesday, and the Philadelphia SE semiconductor index climbed more than 2%.
Chip sector shares were prominent in leading Japan’s Nikkei to gains of about 0.5%.
Taiwan’s tech-heavy bourse jumped 1.5%, while South Korea’s KOSPI shot up 2.8% after chip heavyweights Samsung and Hynix inked partnerships to supply OpenAI data centres.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.5%.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee maintained positive momentum against the US dollar, appreciating 0.01% in the inter-bank market on Thursday. At close, the currency settled at 281.27, a gain of Re0.04 against the greenback.
Volume on the all-share index decreased to 1,573 million from 1,639 million recorded in the previous close. The value of shares rose to Rs70.19 billion from Rs69.66 billion in the previous session.
B.O.Punjab was the volume leader with 148.12 million shares, followed by WorldCall Telecom with 133.87 million shares, and K-Electric Ltd with 115.98 million shares.
Shares of 489 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 239 registered an increase, 227 recorded a fall, while 23 remained unchanged.
