KARACHI: The Pakistan stock market has started 2025 with a strong surge as it continued to scale record highs with the KSE100 index breaching 116804 on Wednesday.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index surged by more than 1,675 points or 1.08% at 10:30 am. This surge marked a positive start to 2025, with broad-based buying across key sectors.
Buying was all the rage in key sectors including automobiles, cement, commercial banks, fertilizers, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation, and pharmaceuticals.
Index-heavy stocks, including HUBCO, SNGPL, MARI, OGDC, ENGRO, MCB, and MEBL, were among the frontrunners in today’s rally, all trading in the green and contributing to the robust performance of the market.
The bullish sentiment in the Pakistan stock market followed a relatively subdued end to 2024.
On the last trading day of the year, the KSE-100 Index closed nearly flat at 115,126.90 points, down 132.09 points or 0.11%. This marked a quiet end to an otherwise stellar year for the market.
Despite the challenges facing the Pakistani economy, 2024 was a record-breaking year for the PSX. Analysts reported that the KSE-100 Index surged by 84.34%, making it the second-best performing market globally.
Over the past 18 months, the PSX outperformed all major global markets with a remarkable 178% gain—its strongest performance in history over such a short period.
Muhammad Sohail, CEO of Topline Securities, noted that despite the impressive rally, Pakistani stocks still trade at a forward Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio of just 6.3x. He pointed out that this signals significant potential for further growth.
Also Read: Pakistan achieves mere 0.92 per cent GDP growth in Q1 FY25
While the PSX celebrated its rally, international markets had a quiet start to 2025. India’s Nifty 50 dropped 0.11% to 23,617.75 points, and the BSE Sensex fell by 0.09% to 78,057.81 points by 9:35 AM IST.
Other Asian markets were also subdued, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index down by 0.1%, as concerns about high U.S. Treasury yields continued to affect emerging markets.
