Business

KSE-100 extends gains with 79-point rise

Published

2 years ago

Farwa

Index gains despite sluggish activity throughout the day.
KSE-100 index closes at 39,972.64 points.
Shares of 321 companies were traded today.

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) extended gains on Wednesday despite sluggish activity throughout the day as the benchmark KSE-100 index gained nearly 80 points.

Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail assured that there is no risk of Pakistan defaulting anymore, which sparked positive momentum at the PSX.

Earlier, trading kicked off with a spike with the index surpassing the 40,000-point mark in the first hour of the session.

However, the gloomy scenario on the back of the depreciating Pakistan rupee and political uncertainty in the wake of the Supreme Court’s verdict in the Punjab CM election shook investor confidence. The index dived by the end of the session.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 39,972.64 points with an increase of 78.59 points or 0.20%.

Benchmark KSE-100 index intra-day trading curve. — PSX data portal

A report from Arif Habib Limited stated that PSX continued to remain under pressure throughout the day due to concerns regarding uncertain economic situations.

The benchmark KSE-100 index witnessed a volatile session as investors opted to remain sideways as the Pakistani rupee continued its freefall against the US dollar.

Mainboard volumes remained dry whereas decent volumes were observed in the third-tier stocks.

Sectors contributing to the performance included banks (+76.9 points), chemicals (+54.2 points), technology (+27.5 points), engineering (+14.4 points), and cement (+10.1 points).

Shares of 321 companies were traded during the session. At the close of trading, 153 scrips closed in the green, 141 in the red, and 27 remained unchanged.

Overall trading volumes dropped to 121.57 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 131.86 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs4.19 billion.

Lotte Chemical was the volume leader with 10.21 million shares traded, gaining Rs1.50 to close at Rs28.50. It was followed by WorldCall Telecom with 9.26 million shares traded, losing Rs0.02 to close at Rs1.18 and TPL Properties with 9.01 million shares traded, losing Rs0.05 to close at Rs17.27.

Business

Robust activity lets PSX climb above 115,000 level again.

Published

6 hours ago

Farwa

On Friday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) resumed its upward trend, crossing 115,000 points once more.

The PSX had strong action in the morning session, as the KSE-100 index increased by 1,000 points to 115,138.

The notoriously volatile PSX closed Thursday at 114,037 points, up 594 points.

DOLLAR DEPRECIES

Meanwhile, in the interbank market this morning, the US dollar fell 7 paisas to Rs278.65 against the Pakistani rupee.

Business

SBP will announce monetary policy on January 27.

Published

6 hours ago

Farwa

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.

Business

Finance Minister Meets With World Leaders at World Economic Forum in Davos

Published

1 day ago

Farwa

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.