PSX Crosses 48,000 After Gaining Over 900 Points in First Hour of Trade

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) crossed the 48,000 mark on July’s last day of trading as bulls took control of the market with traders staking their cash on optimism of more investments from Gulf countries and big expectations of massive international response at tomorrow’s “first-ever” mineral summit. After opening trade at 47,076.00 points, the market showcased bullish sentiments, with the benchmark KSE-100 index gaining as much as 929 points or ~2 percent after rising to a high of 48,000 points within the first hour of the opening bell. Analysts said big buying in energy sector stocks was a major contributor to the early morning bull run, pushing KSE-100 to 48,054 at 10:58 AM. According to Arif Habib Limited, this level was last seen on 23 August 2021. Commenting on the development, Topline Securities CEO Mohammed Sohail said that the market is up over 900 points to reach near 48,000 after 2 years. Optimism of investment from Saudi Arabia and UAE along with Pakistan Mineral Summit is helping investors’ confidence. Commercial Banking (300+ points), Oil & Gas Exploration (240+ points) & Oil & Gas Marketing (63+ pts) sectors are the top positive contributors so far. A total of 81.39 million shares have been traded as of 10:41 AM. CEO of Alpha Beta Core Securities, Khurram Schehzad told ProPakistani, “The index is up but valuations are still massively down (about 15% from previous 48k levels) and did not reach those levels. The market is about 70% lower than what it saw as a peak at $100 billion. So, there is a good upside if political clarity continues, transition happens, and we stay on the economic track with the IMF”. In our view, it has been a big guessing game on what would happen since June 2023 in terms of investment, as there would be a caretaker government followed by a new government taking office very soon. Now, the IMF’s $3 billion funding for 9 months is helping restore investor confidence while investments from Saudi Arabia, UAE, and other creditors will now pour in as a result, which will support FX reserves, at least for the time being. This is an intraday market update.