Stocks up 998 points after briefly hitting 82k mark

KARACHI: Keeping up their bullish momentum, stocks surged by 998 points on Thursday with the intraday record high of above 82,000 amid strong economic outlook and hopes for approval of the extended fund facility (EFF) programme by the International Monetary Fund.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 share index surged by 997.95 points or 1.24 per cent to 81,459.29 points against 80,461.34 points recorded in the last session. The highest index of the day remained at 82,003.58 points while the lowest level was recorded at 80,680.24 points.

CEO Topline Securities Mohammed Sohail said the Pakistan Stock Market reached an all-time intra-day high, breaching 82,000 points and delivering an impressive annual return of nearly 80 per cent, making it one of the top-performing markets globally.

Slower-than-expected selling due to FTSE rebalancing has encouraged local investors to accumulate shares, he said. Falling bond yields -- 1-year T-bills down to 15 per cent from a peak of 23 per cent last year -- are shifting focus towards equities.

The recent rejection of the T-bill auction signals the government’s comfortable liquidity position, potentially paving the way for further cuts in the policy rate.

The KSE-30 index increased by 331.68 points or 1.3 per cent to 25,799.86 points against 25,468.18 points.

Traded shares rose by 59 million shares to 459.037 million shares from 400.195 million shares. The trading value rose to Rs18.61 billion from Rs15.904 billion. Market capital expanded to Rs10.665 trillion against Rs10.610 trillion. Of the 469 companies active in the session, 145 closed in green, 239 in red and 85 remained unchanged.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said, “Stocks closed bullish amid a bull run in global equities and robust data on $75 million current account surplus in August 2024.”He said that surging global crude oil prices after the US Federal Reserve cut in interest rates and an imminent approval of the $7 billion new IMF EFF played a catalyst role in bullish close.

The highest increase was recorded in Unilever Pakistan Foods Limited, which rose by Rs141.10 to Rs17,508.33 per share, followed by Lucky Core Industries Limited, which increased by Rs60.73 to Rs1,075.91 per share. A significant decline was noted in Hallmark Company Limited, which fell by Rs77.07 to Rs822.91 per share, Siemens (Pakistan) Engineering followed it, which closed lower by Rs46.55 to Rs479.57 per share.

Naveed Nadeem, an analyst at Topline Securities, said the benchmark KSE-100 Index closed the trading session at 81,459, reflecting an increase of 997 points, or 1.24 per cent.He said that Pakistan’s stock market is on the verge of reaching the 82,000 level for the first time in history, propelled by key economic reports suggesting that the economy is stabilizing, as well as expectations of interest rate cuts by the central bank after the government unexpectedly rejected all bids for market treasury bills.

This upward momentum was largely driven by FFC, EFERT, MEBL, MCB, and OGDC, which collectively contributed 690 points to the index. Kohinoor Spinning remained volume leader with 35.184 million shares which closed lower by 82 paisas to Rs8.01 per share. K-Electric Ltd followed it with 23.819 million shares, which closed lower by 6 paisas to Rs3.99 per share.

Other significant turnover stocks included WorldCall Telecom, Ist. Capital Sec, TRG Pak Ltd, Fauji Fert Bin, Flying Cement, Pace (Pak) Ltd, Oil & Gas Dev, and F Nat Equities.In the futures market, 320 companies recorded trading, of which 148 increased, 169 decreased and 3 remained unchanged.