On Thursday, bulls resumed their rush at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with shares rising more than 600 points during intraday trading. Analysts attributed the surge to developments around Pakistan International Airlines’ (PIA) privatization.
From the previous close of 66,547.78 points, the KSE-100 index increased by 639.22 points, or 0.96 percent, to stand at 67,187 at 11am.
In a message on X (formerly Twitter) at 10:50 a.m., Arif Habib Limited stated that the index had crossed the intraday high level of 67,094.
A day earlier, the KSE 100-share index had reached an all-time high, closing above 66,500, due to strong international interest following significant progress toward the privatization of the national flag carrier and optimism about International Monetary Fund (IMF) inflows early next month.
It should be noted that the board of PIA Holding Company was approved by the federal cabinet on Tuesday. Since the national carrier’s assets and liabilities would be transferred to the holding company, which will register with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, the action was heralded as a significant breakthrough in the carrier’s privatization process.
Mohammed Sohail, CEO of Topline Securities, said in an interview with Dawn.com today that the KSE-100 index broke the 67,000 barrier on Thursday, continuing the climb.
“Amid encouraging news on privatization and the IMF, foreign and local institutions are purchasing,” he stated.
“This robust performance is primarily attributable to political clarity, successful staff-level agreement (SLA) with the IMF, and initiation of talks with the Fund for a bigger and longer tenure program,” stated Tahir Abbas, head of research at Arif Habib Limited.
In addition, he said that the market is well valued “given its current price-to-earnings ratio of 4.4x” and that foreign interest and inflows have contributed to the market’s recent surge.
