KSE-100 touches another all-time high with passage of budget

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s KSE-100 Index set a new record of 124,379 by gaining over 2,000 points on Friday after the federal government succeeded in getting the budget passed for the new fiscal year.

With a gain of 2,332.60 points, or 1.91 per cent, the KSE-100 Index closed at the level to end the week.

“The passage of the budget by the National Assembly — without aggressive revenue measures and with some relief for salaried individuals and businesses, alongside increased taxation on debt instruments —has restored investor confidence in the market,” Muhammad Awais Ashraf, Director Research at AKD Securities, told Hum News English.

Additionally, the ceasefire between Israel and Iran has redirected investor focus towards improving economic fundamentals. Inflation is expected to decline further in FY26, making the case stronger for single digit interest rates, due to currency stability, fiscal consolidation, and strengthening external account, Ashraf went on to add.

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In this scenario, investors are eyeing the State Bank of Pakistan policy easing amid falling government bond yields in the recent bond auction, Ahsan Mehanti, CEO at Arif Habib Commodities, said.

Surging global equities on a stable Iran-Israel ceasefire and global crude oil prices played a catalyst role in record close at PSX, Mehahti added.

Meanwhile, bull dominated the Friday trading session on aggressive buying by local institutions. This buying by local institutions can be attributed to fresh liquidity on rumoured New Year allocations towards equity funds, Topline Securities stated.

During the session, top positive contributions to the benchmark index came from FFC, LUCK, MEBL, POL, ENGROH, EFERT and OGDC, as they cumulatively contributed 1,044 points.

On the other hand, LUCK (Rs2.27bn), OGDC (Rs2.11bn), PSO (Rs1.97bn), PPL (Rs1.94bn), MLCF (Rs1.09bn), HUBC (Rs1.03bn) and UBL (Rs1.02bn) dominated the trading activity.

At the same time, overall increase in participation was observed as well, as the trading volume and value for the day stood at 769mn shares and Rs37.5bn respectively.

In the last session, the stock market had closed in negative and witnessed a round of profit-taking, driven by fiscal year-end considerations and short-term portfolio rebalancing.