KARACHI: The inflow of positive economic numbers helped the stock market maintain its bullish momentum as the KSE 100 index settled at a record peak near 95,000 on Monday.
Despite falling by 143.20 at 94,620.45 in early trade on profit-taking, the index bounced back with a 544.27-point rally to hit an intraday high of 95,307.92 after the country posted a third straight monthly current account surplus.
However, the index settled at 94,995.67, up by 232.03 points or 0.24pc day-on-day.
Topline Securities Ltd said Chief Executive Mohammed Sohail said the market maintained a positive trajectory as the encouraging IMF statement lifted investor confidence.
He said local mutual funds were actively buying at PSX, with net purchases of Rs40bn in the past two and a half months. This has made them a major driving force behind the 20pc surge in the benchmark index since Sept 1.
“This shift represents only a fraction of the investment moving from fixed-income to equities. With the steep decline in T-bill and bond yields, further inflows into the PSX are likely,” he anticipated.
Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said stocks surged to an all-time high as the country posted a current account surplus of $349 million in October, and the net FDI inflow jumped 32pc to $904m in 4MFY25.
Listing factors and reasons for the continuation of the bull run, he said investors weighed the rising SBP foreign exchange reserves, reforms for state-owned enterprises, new deals with IPPs, the finance minister’s ruling out mini-budget and positive meetings with IMF.
However, the trading volume fell 14.32pc to 765.20m shares, and its value tumbled by 22.35pc to Rs23.92 day-on-day.
Key contributors to the index’s upward movement included Fauji Fertiliser Company, Habib Bank Ltd, Pakistan Services Ltd, Sui Northern Gas Company Ltd, and Lucky Cement, collectively adding 328 points.
Conversely, United Bank, Engro Fertiliser, and Hub Power faced profit-taking, collectively dragging the index down by 164 points.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Hascol Petroleum (85.13m shares), Fauji Foods (60.49m shares), K-Electric (58.38m shares), Sui Southern Gas Company Ltd (48.77m shares) and PTCL (38.82m shares).
Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2024
