PSX rallies post-budget, KSE-100 surges over 2,300 points 

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) opened on a strong note on Wednesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 index gaining 1,692.75 points to reach 123,717.19 within the first five minutes of trading. During this early session, the trading volume stood at 9.99 million shares. 

By around 11:50am, bullish sentiment persisted, pushing the index even higher to 124,346.21, a gain of 2,321.77 points. Trading volume had surged to nearly 168 million shares by that time. 

Key contributors to the index’s rally included Fauji Fertiliser Company (FFC) with 146.48 points, Pakistan GasPort (PKGP) with 117.13 points, Meezan Bank (MEBL) with 95.09 points, Lucky Cement (LUCK) with 91.32 points, and Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) with 82.43 points. 

On the flip side, stocks that weighed on the index were Atlas Honda (ATLH), which shed 35.87 points, Attock Refinery (ATRL) with 34.67 points, Indus Motor (INDU) with 14.67 points, Cnergyico (CNERGY) with 10.90 points, and FrieslandCampina Engro Pakistan (FCEPL) with 7.20 points. 

Widespread buying was witnessed across key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration, oil marketing companies, and power generation. Heavyweights such as HUBCO, PSO, WAFI, MARI, OGDC, PPL, POL, HBL, MCB, MEBL, and UBL were all trading in the green. 

The bullish momentum followed the unveiling of the federal budget for 2025–26, which brought relief to investors as the government refrained from introducing major taxation changes. Capital gains tax on dividends has been maintained at 15 per cent. 

In the budget, the government set an inflation target of 7.5 per cent for the upcoming fiscal year, while the fiscal deficit has been projected at 3.9 per cent of GDP, or Rs5,037 billion, down from the outgoing fiscal year’s target of 5.9 per cent. 

Previous close

On Tuesday, the KSE-100 index ended the session at 122,024.44, gaining 383.44 points or 0.32 per cent. The index fluctuated within a range of 1,021.63 points, recording an intraday high of 122,611.53 and a low of 121,589.90. Total traded volume for the day stood at 235.30 million shares.

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