KARACHI: Stocks on Monday marched to a new all-time high after briefly crossing the 94,000 mark, driven by fresh foreign interest and the grand entry of money market funds into the capital market, especially following a major policy rate cut that diminished the appeal of government debt. The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Shares Index closed at 93,648.32 points, up 356.64 points or 0.38% from the previous close of 93,291.68 points, after hitting an intraday high of 94,020.02 points. Talking to Geo.tv, Ahsan Mehanti from Arif Habib Corp said stocks reached an all-time high, driven by blue-chip scrips, drawing foreign investors interest after the MSCI standard index weight was revised to 4.4%. “Rupee stability and declining bank lending rates, following a slump in government bond yields, also spurred the bullish activity at the PSX,” Mehanti added. Last week, the MSCI announced changes in its global indices’ constituents, effective after the market close on November 25, 2024. The MSCI small cap index has 399 constituents, out of which 67 (17% of the total) are from Pakistan with a weight of 10.5%.
Raza Jafri, CEO at EFG Hermes Pakistan, told Geo. tv that the energy sector was contributing most to the index’s rise, complemented by a catch-up rise in some hitherto underperforming high beta stocks.