PSX crosses historic benchmark of 68,000 points

KARACHI, (NNI): The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday skyrocketed to a new all-time high as it crossed the psychological barrier of 68,000 amid robust buying.

As the trading was set into motion, the share prices soared by 573 points tossing the benchmark KSE-100 index over the 68,300 points.

Later, the buyers opted for profit-taking which brought down the index a little over 68,000 in the morning session of the week’s last day of trading.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange will remain closed on Friday (April 5) on account of Jummatul Wida.

On Wednesday, the index had settled for another record high after recording an increase of 869.77 points, or 1.3%, and ended the day at 67,756.04. The stock market followed an upward trajectory right after the commencement of trading. Bulls ruled the bourse in a rally fuelled by anticipation of monetary policy easing by the State Bank of Pakistan following the decline in inflation to 20.68% for March 2024.

Selective buying of stocks, especially in the cement sector, helped the market to maintain its bullish momentum throughout the day on Wednesday that allowed the index to rise nearly 870 points.

Throughout the day, the market stayed in the green, climbing steadily to its intraday high of 67,873.21.

Investors opted to buy the cement sector’s stocks like Maple Leaf Cement (+7.5%), Fauji Cement (+7.5%) and DG Khan Cement (+7.5%), which managed to close at their respective upper caps.

Steel sector followed in the footsteps of cement industry where International Steels (+6.70%), Mughal Iron and Steel Industries (+5.05%), Amreli Steels (+3.97%) and International Industries (+3.56%) closed in the green.

The Wednesday’s positive contributors were Engro Corporation, Engro Fertilisers, Lucky Cement, Pakistan Petroleum, Oil and Gas Development Company and Dawood Hercules, which added 546 points.

The negative contributors were Meezan Bank, MCB Bank and Hub Power, which lost 64.89 points.