KARACHI: In a remarkable start to the new year, bulls at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) charged ahead on Monday to set a robust financial outlook in 2024 as the key stock index recorded second highest single-day gain in its history, traders and stock analysts said.
The benchmark KSE100 index recorded a gain of 2,211 points, marking a significant rise of 3.54 percent on a day-on-day basis, to close at 64,662 points. The surge was the second highest increase in PSX history in a single day.
Pakistani equities posted the highest single-day gain on July 3 last year, when the key index had jumped by 2,446 points.
“Today’s bullish sentiment was fueled by foreign and local institutional buying at the bourse,” Shahid Ali Habib, chief executive officer of the Arif Habib Limited brokerage house, told Arab News.
Habib was optimistic that foreign funds and net-worth individuals would continue to pour their investment in equities for the rest of the year too, which he said would propel the KSE100 index to new peaks.
“We expect that the index would hit 80,000 to 85,000 level by this year,” he said.
Last year, Pakistan’s equity market witnessed a remarkable 55 percent surge — the most significant in 13 years — after the South Asian nation secured a much-needed $3 billion short-term financing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and completed the first review of the program.
Pakistan received the first tranche of $1.2 billion under the nine-month Standby Arrangement (SBA) in November last year, while it expects another tranche of $700 million after the IMF board’s approval, mostly likely next week.
The stocks closed in green on the hopes of upcoming disbursement from the IMF as well, according to analysts.
“Imminent release of IMF tranche this month, surging foreign exchange reserves, government resolve to end circular debt crises, [and] the current account surplus in November 2023 played a catalyst role in the bullish close at PSX,” Ahsan Mehanti, a senior stock analyst, told Arab News.
Mehanti said the expected investment from the Gulf countries was also one of the contributing factors toward the overall bullish sentiment at the bourse.
