The bullish trend continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday, with the KSE-100 Index climbing nearly 700 points. Strong buying activity across key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, pharmaceuticals, and oil marketing companies, helped the index close the week positively.
At the close of the session, the benchmark index settled at 78,569.59 points, up by 695.36 points or 0.89%.
Major contributions to the index’s gains came from stocks such as MARI, UBL, MCB, SYS, and MEBL, which collectively added 566 points, according to a post-market report from Topline Securities.
The PSX had already seen a strong upward trend on Thursday, fueled by aggressive buying at attractive levels, resulting in healthy gains.
On a week-on-week basis, the KSE-100 Index increased by 0.44%, driven by strong corporate earnings reports and a reduction in government bond yields. The yield on the 3-month bond, for instance, fell by 52 basis points to 18.9748, with accepted bids amounting to Rs63 billion.
In other developments, overseas workers’ remittances for July reached nearly $3 billion, marking a significant 48% increase compared to the same period last year, according to data from the State Bank of Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Lucky Cement reported a profit-after-tax of Rs72.34 billion for 2024, a 21% increase from the previous year, thanks to higher revenue and lower sales costs.
Discussions were also held between high-level Pakistani officials, including Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and Minister for Power Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari, and Chinese authorities concerning Pakistan’s energy sector.
Globally, Chinese stocks rose after better-than-expected consumer price data for July, with global markets also buoyed by a drop in U.S. jobless claims. The MSCI Asia ex-Japan index rose by 2.04%, while Japan’s Nikkei index gained 1.16%.
In the currency market, the Pakistani rupee saw a slight improvement, appreciating by 0.05% against the U.S. dollar, closing at 278.55.
The all-share index volume decreased to 420.40 million from the previous session’s 493.09 million, with the value of shares declining to Rs20.72 billion from Rs25.85 billion. Kohinoor Spinning led the volume with 64.78 million shares traded, followed by Yousuf Weaving and The Organic Meat. Out of 446 companies traded, 226 saw gains, 156 recorded losses, and 64 remained unchanged.
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