Companies Listed on PSX Post Record Profits for Q1 2021

The companies listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) posted outstanding results for the first quarter of the current calendar year, with the highest ever quarterly profits of Rs. 243 billion. This is 82 percent higher, year over year (YoY), on the quarterly profits recorded in the same quarter of 2020, and 11 percent higher, quarter over quarter (QoQ), than the profits reported in the last quarter of the calendar year 2020. Public sector listed companies posted a 15 percent increase in profits year on year, and privately owned listed companies saw their earnings shoot up 119 percent year on year. On a quarter on quarter basis, the increase in profits is 33 percent and 5 percent, respectively. Notable companies in the government-owned segment include Bank of Punjab, Oil and Gas Development Company, Pakistan State Oil, and National Bank of Pakistan. The largest contributors to KSE-100 profitability were oil marketing companies (OMCs), followed by fertilizers, cement, banks, and chemicals. In the previous year, the energy sector got the biggest brunt of the pandemic-led lockdown, which resulted in heavy inventory losses to OMCs. This year, due to the low base effect, the same OMCs emerged as star performers in 1Q2021. OMCs contributed profits of nearly Rs. 21 billion in the period under concern.