At close, KSE-100 index closes at 42,525.95 points.
The index traded between hope and despair on IMF programme.
Shares of 341 companies were traded during the session.
KARACHI: The bulls staged a comeback at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday cheering the finance minister’s assurance the much-awaited International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme will be revived within two days.
Constant assurance from the top leadership that the stalled $6 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme will be revived this week strengthened investors’ sentiment as players cherry-picked stocks that lost valuation during the last bearish spell.
The benchmark KSE-100 index traded between hope and despair, which eventually let loose the bulls, who pulled the bourse into the green.
Investors kept a close watch on economic news after the Pakistan rupee continued to break records by dropping to an all-time low of 211.48 against the US dollar in the interbank market.
The KSE-100 index gained since the morning bell rang, but some dips were seen at regular intervals. The uptrend turned steeper at midday as the index once again breached the 42,000-point mark.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 42,525.95 points after surging 748.97 points or 1.79%.
A report from Arif Habib Limited noted that the bulls triumphed in the trading session at PSX today. “The benchmark KSE-100 index remained in the green zone throughout the day as value buying was witnessed across the board,” the brokerage house noted.
“The investors gained confidence in expectation of resumption of the IMF programme. Volumes remained healthy in the main board,” it stated.
Sectors contributing to the performance included technology (+136.6 points), exploration and production (+95.2 points), cement (+85.9 points), banks (+76.3 points) and fertiliser (+72.2 points).
Shares of 341 companies were traded during the session. At the close of trading, 268 scrips closed in the green, 49 in the red, and 24 remained unchanged.
Overall trading volumes rose to 300.59 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 162.11 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs9.47 billion.
TPL Properties was the volume leader with 23.68 million shares traded, gaining Rs1.48 to close at Rs21.23. It was followed by Pakistan Refinery with 20.65 million shares traded, gaining Rs1.16 to close at Rs18.85 and Cnergy Limited with 17.86 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.35 to close at Rs5.66.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will release its monetary policy on Monday.
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the SBP will convene on the first day of the following week to make decisions on monetary policy.
The Monetary Policy decision will be announced by Governor SBP Jameel Ahmad at a news conference on the same day after the MPC meeting, according to an official release.
In December, the central bank reduced policy rates by 200 basis points (bps) to 13 percent.
“In November 2024, headline inflation fell to 4.9 percent year on year, meeting the MPC’s estimates. This decrease was mostly caused by the ongoing decline in food inflation and the phasing out of the impact of the gas tariff increase in November 2023,” SBP stated in an official release.
“However, the Committee noted that core inflation, at 9.7 percent, is proving to be sticky, while consumer and business inflation expectations remain volatile.” To that end, the Committee restated its previous assessment that inflation may remain volatile in the short term before stabilizing within the target range.
“At the same time, growth prospects have slightly improved, as evidenced by a recent increase in high-frequency indicators of economic activity.” Overall, the Committee concluded that its approach of gradual policy rate decreases is keeping inflationary and external account pressures under control while promoting long-term economic growth.
During his attendance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has met with officials of organisations and leaders of many nations. Bangladesh’s Chief Advisor, Muhammad Younas, met with Mohammad Aurangzeb. On the fringes of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2025 Opening Banquet, there was an informal meeting. Additionally, the Finance Minister met with Anwar Ibrahim, the Prime Minister of Malaysia. Both leaders discussed economic cooperation and bilateral ties. Muhammad Aurangzeb also had a meeting with Dp World’s Rizwan Soomro and Yuvraj Narayan. They talked about how to strengthen Pakistan’s logistics and infrastructure systems to support trade. “The Pakistani government is committed to advancing joint projects and values partnerships in both business-to-business and business-to-government cooperation,” the finance minister added.