Karachi: Market continued its bullish momentum throughout the week, with KSE-100 index closing at 93,291 points, up by 2.7% week-on-week, achieving its highest ever closing. The momentum was fueled by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) accelerating the pace of monetary easing with a 250 basis points cut, resulting in the policy rate ending at 15% as inflation continues to fall towards the central bank’s medium-term target range, providing impetus to cyclical sectors. MSCI added eight Pakistan securities while removing one from its MSCI FM Small Cap Index as part of its November review. Furthermore, an IMF mission is scheduled to arrive next week for the first review of the US$7 billion Extended Fund Facility, originally due in March 2025 but will take place four months ahead of schedule. Additionally, cement offtakes in October 2024 clocked in at 4.36 million tons, up 9% year-on-year. On the macro front, workers’ remittances remained robust, clocking in at US$3.0 billion during October 2024, taking four months
of FY25 remittances to US$11.8 billion, up 35% year-on-year. Additionally, SBP-held foreign exchange reserves increased by US$18 million week-on-week, ending the week at US$11.2 billion as of November 1st, 2024. Moreover, the average daily trading volume remained higher, up by 31.2% week-on-week, clocking in at 896.1 million shares, compared to 682.8 million shares traded in the earlier week.

According to AKD Securities Limited, on the currency front, the Pakistani Rupee largely remained flat against the US dollar throughout the week, closing at 277.74 PKR/US$. Other major news flow during the week included Qatar’s plan to invest $3 billion in various sectors, a 13.45% year-on-year increase in exports from July to October, amounting to US$10.88 billion, a planned Eurobond sale for FY26, tax exemptions in FY24 amounting to Rs3.8 trillion as reported by FBR, and the government’s plan to raise Rs8.7 trillion debt to pay maturing loans. Sector-wise, Refinery, Exchange Traded Fund, Jute, Mutual Funds, and Paper & Board were amongst the top performers, up 11.5%, 11.3%, 11.1%, 10.9%, and 10.8% week-on-week, respectively. Conversely, Synthetic & Rayon, Tobacco, Real Estate Investment Trust, Banks, and Leather & Tanneries were amongst the worst performers with declines of 3.5%, 2.4%, 2.4%, 1.9%, and 0.3% week-on-week, respectively. Flow-wise, major net selling was recorded by individuals with a net sell of
US$13.6 million. On the other hand, Mutual Funds absorbed most of the selling with a net buy of US$22.0 million. Company-wise, top performers during the week were PIBTL (up 27.4% week-on-week), HCAR (up 23.1% week-on-week), BOP (up 18.8% week-on-week), PKGS (up 18.7% week-on-week), and FCEPL (up 17.3% week-on-week), while the top laggards were SCBPL (down 5.7% week-on-week), IBFL (down 5.3% week-on-week), FABL (down 4.1% week-on-week), SRVI (down 4.0% week-on-week), and HBL (down 3.7% week-on-week).