From Zeeshan Mirza
Karachi: The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s benchmark KSE-100 index briefly went above the 50,000 mark on Tuesday, a milestone that analysts said oc-curred after six years.
Volume on the KSE-100 index reached high of 50,017.45 at 11:23am, after pe-tering out to 49,787.57 two hours later. The market finally closed at 49,531.01 points, down 200 points or 0.4 per cent.
Brokerage firm Arif Habib noted in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that the in-dex went up by “286 points (50,017 pts, or up 0.58pc, on intraday basis) DoD; the 50k level crossed after ~ six years (last seen on June 07, 2017)”.
Raza Jafri, head of equity at brokerage company Intermarket Securities, said investors were looking at the government’s complete focus on the economy and the Pakistani rupee strengthening, which is feeding into expectations that interest rates may have peaked. “There could be episodes of profit-taking given the quick rally, but a successful IMF review can help lead the KSE-100 towards a new all-time high,” Jafri added.
Ahsan Mehanti, of Arif Habib Corp, said positive activity continued in the earning season amid higher trades as investors weighed rupee recovery and deliberations on CPEC projects during the PM’s visit to China.
“Expected fall in inflation amid cut in local POL prices, falling current account deficit and likely release of next IMF tranche under Stand-by Arrangement played a catalyst role in bullish close.”
