The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) kicked off the new year with strong momentum, as the benchmark KSE-100 Index rose by over 1,600 points in early trading on Wednesday.
By 10:30 AM, the index had reached 116,804 points, marking a gain of 1,675 points or 1.08%. This strong start to 2025 was driven by widespread buying across key sectors.
Significant gains were observed in the automobile, cement, commercial banking, fertilizer, oil and gas exploration, OMCs, power generation, and pharmaceutical sectors.
Index-leading stocks such as HUBCO, SNGPL, MARI, OGDC, ENGRO, MCB, and MEBL were among the top performers, all trading in the green and bolstering the market’s strong performance.
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The positive sentiment followed a relatively flat finish to 2024, with the KSE-100 Index closing at 115,126.90 points, down by only 132.09 points or 0.11% on the last trading day of the year, marking a subdued end to an otherwise remarkable year for the market.
Despite economic challenges, 2024 was a record-breaking year for the PSX. Analysts reported an 84.34% surge in the KSE-100 Index, making it the second-best performing market globally. Over the past 18 months, the PSX has outperformed major global markets, with an extraordinary 178% gain—its strongest performance in history over such a short period.
Muhammad Sohail, CEO of Topline Securities, highlighted that despite the impressive rally, Pakistani stocks continue to trade at an average forward Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio of just 6.3x, indicating significant potential for further growth.
While the PSX celebrates its remarkable rally, international markets had a more subdued start to 2025. India’s benchmark indexes were flat, with the Nifty 50 down by 0.11% at 23,617.75 points and the BSE Sensex falling by 0.09% to 78,057.81 points by 9:35 AM IST. Other Asian markets also showed weakness, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index declining by 0.1%, as concerns over elevated U.S. inflation lingered.
