Tag: PSX

  • US Dollar continues to slide, reaches Rs183

    US Dollar continues to slide, reaches Rs183

    The US Dollar fell by Rs1.43 shortly after the interbank market opened, and is now being traded at Rs183.25.

    Following days of depreciation, the Pakistani rupee (PKR) rebounded against the US dollar in the interbank market on April 11, signaling that the currency value is stabilizing.

    On Friday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) index KSE-100 reversed course and experienced an uptrend, adding 657.75 points, or 1.50 per cent, to close at 44,444.58 points, up from 43,786.83 points the previous working day.

    The KSE-100 index began on Monday morning to strong investor optimism, following a historic weekend in which Imran Khan became the first prime minister in Pakistan’s history to be removed by a vote of no confidence, putting an end to the country’s ongoing political crisis.

    According to foreign currency dealers, the greenback is now selling at Rs183.20, after weakening Rs1.83 versus the PKR in early trade.

  • SBP determined to curb inflation, improve foreign exchange reserves

    SBP determined to curb inflation, improve foreign exchange reserves

    In a recent interview, the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Dr. Reza Baqir expressed concern over the continuous deterioration in foreign exchange reserves but remained optimistic that a renewal of loans will be witnessed in the near future, which, coupled with SBP’s initiatives, will enhance market confidence.

    He claimed that the decline in reserves is “clearly alarming, but we are convinced that the central bank’s initiatives will prevent further deterioration”.

    According to data issued by the central bank on April 7, the reserves massively declined by $728 million to $11.32 billion as of April 1.

    The decline, according to SBP, is primarily attributable to debt repayment and government payments linked to the settling of an arbitration judgment.

    In addition to this, the currency even hit new lows in the week, forcing the SBP to intervene by boosting the policy rate, declaring a 100 per cent cash margin on 177 commodities with instant effect, and hiking the markup percentage by 2.5 per cent for borrowing under the Export Finance Scheme (EFS).

    In response to the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) recent rate hike, Baqir stated that the move was made to tackle growing inflation and lessen external pressures. “The foreign exchange market has been under a lot of pressure for more than a month. A number of factors contributed to it: first, there was political uncertainty; second, our reserves were drained due to debt payments”.

    Consequently, the Pakistani rupee ended its devaluation run on April 8, and the KSE-100 Index witnessed positive sentiment, ending the day with an impressive gain of 658 points.

    The SBP Governor also discussed the skyrocketing petrol prices, which remain elevated because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, adding more pressure on the local currency.

    The central bank made a determined decision after analyzing the statistics to lower inflation, improve foreign exchange reserves, and boost business confidence.

  • Surprisingly high profitability in corporate sector despite pandemic

    Surprisingly high profitability in corporate sector despite pandemic

    The results for corporate profitability are pleasantly surprising as the aggregate profitability shown by listed companies amounted to Rs 213.9 billion.

    The year-on-year growth rate for the recent quarter is 38 per cent. In sector-wise profitability: commercial banks have contributed to the highest sum of Rs48 billion earning in the quarter.

    The oil and gas exploration and production sector also yields the highest profits and contributed Rs41bn tax for the quarter.

    Furthermore, the sector that has reported surprising growth in profit is technology and communications. Put together the total earnings are Rs5.9bn, which is 27.6 times higher from Rs207m in the same quarter of 2019.

    Software companies like Avanceon Ltd, Systems Ltd, TRG Pakistan and Netsol Technologies saw their share prices grow during the year.

    TRG Pakistan shares were at Rs12.87 on March 25, 2020. It is now trading at Rs143, which is 11 times higher in one year. Netsol Technologies surged from Rs27.16 a share to Rs285, up ten times in one year.

    Analysts said that technology companies even in the United States (US) challenged the worst economic downturn and reported robust financial growth during the pandemic.

    Engineering sectors mainly comprising steel companies also outperformed most sectors with earnings of Rs5.1bn, recording a growth of 18.7 times from Rs257m a year ago.

    The Cement sector has benefitted from the government’s great incentives to the construction industry. They have reported 570 per cent growth, a total profit of Rs11.7bn which was Rs1.7bn in 2019.

    “The strong corporate profitability provides strong support to the market and should be a key driver for the KSE-100 index once political noise dies down,” said Raza Jafri, head of equities at Intermarket Securities.

    The food sector’s earnings were satisfactory but were dragged down by the poor profitability of FrieslandCampina Engro.

  • Stocks hold gains to cross 45,000 points threshold for first time since May 2018

    The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) gained over 500 points on Wednesday to cross the 45,000-point threshold for the first time since May 2018.

    Global equity markets also showed a positive trend. Profit reported that the buying activity was observed across the board. According to the newspaper, “Exploration & production and oil & gas marketing sectors rebounded strongly, whereas cement and fertilizer sectors continued with previous day’s positive momentum.”

    “International crude oil prices jumped significantly on the conclusion of agreement among OPEC+ countries, which became the basis for an uptick in E&P stocks. Cement sector leaped on the expectation of an increase in cement price in the northern region, while banking sector contributed positively in anticipation of annual results.”

    Express Tribune reported that the trading volumes lifted to 664.5million shares due to strong investors’ interest. The market outlook also remained positive due to the government’s decision to settling circular debt with the independent power producers (IPPs), though partially.

    Moreover, the petroleum product sales that rose in double digits also helped the bullish trend. “Oil sales were up 16% to 1.59 million tons in December 2020 compared to 1.37 million tons in the same month of 2019,” the report said.

    It further stated that the State Bank of Pakistan’s report on the Pakistani economy also played a role in rallying the stock market. According to the central bank, the economic activity in the country has been largely restored to pre-coronavirus levels in the first quarter of the current financial year.

  • Stock market surge in reality after Danish buys shares in ‘Mere Paas Tum Ho’, breaks Twitter

    The stock market in Pakistan has witnessed an increase by gaining 40,000 points after a gap of around 10 months, and netizens are thanking Danish from the popular TV serial ‘Mere Paas Tum Ho‘ for buying shares worth Rs7.8 million in the latest episode that aired Saturday.

    The TV serial took an unexpected turn after Danish purchased shares of Shahwar Chemicals — a company owned by his ex-wife Mehwish’s new lover Shahwar Ahmed — to further inflict damage to the company that is undergoing losses for the past few months.

    While Danish buying shares played a typical form of karma in the serial for his wife, people can’t help but laud the character for causing an actual stock market upsurge.

    Twitterati couldn’t help but notice how that moment in the serial coincided perfectly with a stock market rise in Pakistan in reality, and the microblogging website was soon flooded with memes.

    Actor Humayun Saeed, who plays Danish, is once again breaking the internet and here’s what social media users have to say about the coincidence:

    Many users are thanking danish for purchasing stocks from Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).

    And some are trolling Mehwish — played by actor Ayeza Khan — for leaving Danish for being a middle-class government employee, for Shahwar.

    Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday crossed the 40,000 mark after a gap of around 10 months as the KSE-100 index closed at 40,122 points with a positive change of 836 points. A total of 361,655,400 shares were traded during the day, whereas the value of shares traded stood at Rs13.75 billion as compared to the previous day’s value of Rs11.9 billion.