There was no looking back for the enthusiastic investors currently on a buying spree at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as share prices rocketed to another all-time high during trading on Monday. As soon as the business started, the buyers were on the rampage taking the benchmark KSE-100 index to another historic mark, smashing through the 73,000 psychological barrier. Share prices soared by 392 points or 0.53% in the morning session taking the index to record high of 73,134. The experts were of the view that the stock market was building in expectations of a cut in interest rate by the State Bank and the IMF was also due to give approval to the last tranche of the $3 billion loan programme. On the last trading day on Friday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 index had soared by over 700 points on hopes of a cut in the key policy rate. The benchmark KSE-100 index had gained 771.34 points, or 1.07 percent, to stand at 72,742.74 points at the day’s close. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)’s monetary policy committee (MPC) will meet on April 29 (today) to take a decision regarding the key interest rate policy.

Last month, the committee had chosen to maintain the status quo by upholding the key policy rate at 22 percent for the sixth policy meeting in a row. A Topline Securities survey from last week stated that 51pc of participants expect the policy rate will remain unchanged at 22pc, while the remaining 49pc anticipate a policy rate cut. Pakistan’s key rate was last raised in June to fight persistent inflationary pressures and to meet one of the conditions set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for securing the bailout. On Friday, across-the-board buying was witnessed with sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies and refinery sector, while index-heavy stocks including DGKC, OGDC, PPL and MARI traded in the green. Volume on the all-share index decreased to 541.14 million from 798.52 million a session ago. The value of shares also increased to Rs27.54 billion from Rs22.59 billion in the previous session. Askari Bank was the volume leader with 39.17 million shares, followed by K-Electric Ltd with 31.23 million shares, and WorldCall Telecom with 30.15 million shares. Shares of 377 companies were traded on Friday, of which 177 registered an increase, 175 recorded a fall, while 25 remained unchanged.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan