Stocks on Monday breached the 84,000-points mark resistance level, mainly fuelled by energy sector as investors hope that central bank was primed for another rate cut in its next monetary policy meeting, traders said.
Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark the KSE-100 Index surged to an intraday high of 84,656.90, up 1120.05 points, or 1.34%, by 01:41pm.
Analysts, including Samiullah Tariq, pointed to rising expectations of a rate cut as the primary driver, citing a continuous drop in the consumer price index (CPI) inflation to single digits touching 6.9% in September.
Key sectors fueling the gains included automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, fertilizers, oil and gas exploration companies, and oil marketing companies (OMCs).
Ahsan Mehanti, analyst at Arif Habib Corp said stocks were hovering around all-times highs led by blue chip oil scrips amid speculations in earnings season.
“Surging global crude oil prices, slump in banking lending rates and Govt deliberation on privatisation of SOEs played a catalyst role in bullish activity in PSX,” Mehanti added.
Heavyweights such as National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Meezan Bank (MEBL), Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim (FFBL), Pakistan Petroleum (PPL), Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC), Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGP), and Pakistan State Oil (PSO) were all in the green.
On Friday, the benchmark index jumped by 810.19 points or 0.98% to 83,531.96 points, hitting an intraday high of 83,605.73 points and a low of 82,594.80 points.
