KARACHI: With the approval of the 26th constitutional amendment in the wee hours of Monday and subsequent presidential assent, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) staged a spectacular rally, propelling the KSE 100 index above 86,000.

Ahsan Mehanti from Arif Habib Corporation said stocks showed sharp recovery in early across-the-board buying as investors felt the passage of the amendment would bring the political uncertainty to an end.

He said speculations in the earnings season and easing lending rates also aided the bull run at PSX.

Topline Securities Ltd said the session exhibited positive momentum following a reduction in political uncertainty, highlighted by the Senate’s approval of the 26th Constitutional Amendment Bill 2024, which passed with a two-thirds majority on Sunday evening. Subsequently, the National Assembly also ratified this contentious legislation.

Key contributors to the index rally included

Millat Tractors, United Bank, Att­ock Refinery, Hub Po­wer, and Pioneer Cement, which collectively added 274 points.

The benchmark KSE 100 index surged to an intraday high at 86,172.79, achieving a gain of 922.70 points. However, it

settled at 86,057.52 after adding 807.42 points or 0.95pc day-on-day.

Market participation rose 46.62pc to 474.94 million shares, while the traded value rose 25.38pc to Rs19.65bn.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Kohinoor Spinning Mills Ltd (59.10m shares), Pakistan Inter­national Bulk Terminal Ltd (27.87m shares), Flying Cement (18.49m shares), Hum Network (17.75m shares) and PTCL (17.52m shares).

The shares registering the most significant incre­ases in their prices in absolute terms were Unilever Foods (Rs212.49), Hoechst Pakistan (Rs127.77), Sie­mens Pakis­tan (Rs76.50), Rafhan Maize (Rs43.08) and Bata Pakistan (Rs39.13).

The companies that suffered significant losses in their share prices in absolute terms were Hallmark Company (Rs46.43), Pak Tobacco (Rs37.02), Indus Motor (Rs29.09), Sapphire Fibres (Rs29.00) and Ser­vice Industries (Rs24.02).

Mutual funds and banks picked shares worth $3.74m and $1.05m, respectively. However, foreigners remai­ned net sellers as they offlo­aded shares worth $0.73m.

Published in Dawn, October 22th, 2024