KARACHI – The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) maintained its bullish trend on Thursday as the federal budget has cemented the confidence of the investors on the policies of the government for economic growth in the country.
The KSE-100 benchmark gained 1068.28 points to reach fresh peak of 125,420.96 points till 10:04 am amid hopes that it would cross the 126,000 points milestone today.
According to Topline Securities, several measures announced by the government in the budget has sparked record rally in the stock market.
It said contrary to expectations of some changes in tax rates on passive income sources, the government has kept the CGT and dividend rates unchanged. We believe, this is positive for market.
Similarly, there has been no change in the treatment of the dividend and capital gain, which is also positive for the market, it added.
The budget aims to target primary surplus of 2.4% of GDP, in line with IMF guidelines. “We believe, this will also be taken as positive as primary surplus target is one of the Quantitative Performance Criteria in IMF program”.
A day earlier, the KSE-100 also witnessed bullish trend as it gained 2,328.24 points, showing positive change of 1.91 percent, and closed at 124,352.68 points.
A total of 1,041,129,574 shares worth Rs 46.707 billion were traded during the previous day.
As many as 478 companies transacted their shares in the stock market, 283 of them recorded gains and 157 sustained losses, whereas the share price of 38 companies remained unchanged.
The three top trading companies were Pervez Ahmed Company with 78,292,186 shares at Rs 2.00 per share, WorldCall Telecom with 55,140,713 shares at Rs 1.45 per share and Sui South Gas with 45,087,896 shares at Rs 41.14 per share.
