Pakistan stock market hits all-time high

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) had jumped past the 55,000 barrier, setting a new milestone.

On Friday, the benchmark KSE-100 index reached an intraday high of 55,506.32 points, Geo News reported.

According to Arif Habib Limited on X, formerly Twitter, the KSE-100 index crossed the 55,000 level trading to reach an all-time high.

Arif Habib Limited (AHL) Head of Research, Tahir Abbas said that the expectations of getting through with the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) first review have driven the market.

"Moreover, peaking out inflation and interest rates alongside expected monetary easing, and attractive valuations despite the market being at an all-time high is garnering investors sentiment at the local bourse," he added.

Head of Equities at Intermarket Securities Raza Jafri said the KSE-100 continues to make new highs on strong domestic institutional buying and reducing Pakistan Investment Bond (PIB) yields, Geo News reported.

He also attributed the increase to higher weight for Pakistan in the coming review by global index provider MSCI and the high dividend-yielding stocks.

"The ongoing IMF review is the next key checkpoint," he added.

Overall trading volumes increased to 640.8 million shares compared with Thursday's tally of 482.7 million. The value of shares traded during the day was 21.1 billion PKR.

The average traded volume at PSX witnessed a 2.4-year high, according to AHL, Geo News reported.