Stocks end week with gain of 449 points

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a range-bound session on Friday, though a late recovery helped the benchmark index close in positive territory.

Market analysts attributed the cautious trading activity to heightened geopolitical tensions following the recent terrorist incident in Pahalgam, located in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, which has led to a renewed standoff between India and Pakistan.

The benchmark KSE-100 index ended the session at 115,469.34, gaining 449.53 points or 0.39 per cent. The index fluctuated within a range of 2,128.28 points during the session, recording an intraday high of 115,844.88 (+825.07) and a low of 113,716.6 (-1,303.21).

“Stocks turned bullish after the United Nations called on both Pakistan and India to exercise maximum restraint and resolve issues through mutual engagement,” said Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp.

He added that strong corporate earnings, a rally in global equity markets, expectations of monetary easing by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), and the anticipated release of the next IMF support tranche played a catalytic role in the market’s late-session rally.

Traded shares dropped by 35.6 million shares to 471.072 million shares from 506.702 million shares. The trading value dropped to Rs27.310 billion from Rs24.488 billion. Market capital narrowed to Rs14.096 trillion against Rs14.100 trillion. Of the 441 companies active in the session, 182 closed in green, 204 in red, and 55 remained unchanged.

Nabeel Haroon, analyst at Topline Securities, noted in a post-market commentary that range-bound activity dominated most of the day due to geopolitical concerns. However, a rebound in the latter part of the session lifted the index to 115,469 points. He said the major positive contributors to the index were HBL, FFC, MEBL, MCB, and NBP, which collectively added 570 points.

Key earnings announcements were made during the day. National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) reported its first quarter FY2025 results, posting a consolidated earnings per share (EPS) of Rs10.29 -- down 2.37 per cent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) but up 126 per cent year-on-year (YoY). Habib Bank Limited (HBL) also released its 1QFY2025 results, announcing a consolidated EPS of Rs11.32, up 15.3 per cent QoQ and 9.2 per cent YoY, accompanied by an interim cash dividend of Rs4.5 per share.

Of the 100 index companies, 44 closed higher, 52 declined, three remained unchanged, and one was untraded.

Top gainers included HBL (+6.92 per cent), NBP (+5.45 per cent), SAZEW (+4.28 per cent), MLCF (+4.12 per cent), and PABC (+3.24 per cent). The top losers were GLAXO (-7.85 per cent), JDWS (-6.07 per cent), SCBPL (-3.61 per cent), PKGP (-3.12 per cent), and AVN (-2.88 per cent).

In terms of index point contribution, HBL added 185.54 points, followed by FFC (+125.55 points), MEBL (+95.03 points), MCB (+87.3 points), and NBP (+76.44 points). On the downside, MARI (-74.66 points), GLAXO (-73.43 points), UBL (-54.3 points), PPL (-51.94 points), and PSO (-48.58 points) weighed on the index.

Sector-wise, the index was buoyed by commercial banks (+401.52 points), fertilisers (+131.72 points), cement (+104.80 points), investment banks/companies/securities firms (+48.07 points), and automobile assemblers (+35.45 points). The main drags were oil and gas exploration companies (-124.12 points), pharmaceuticals (-90.73 points), oil and gas marketing companies (-41.15 points), refineries (-24.68 points), and sugar & allied industries (-14.55 points).