Buying Continues at Pakistan Stock Exchange, Gains Over 400 Points

The stock market closes at 117,315.58, showing a positive change of 0.35%.

Fri Apr 18 2025
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ISLAMABAD: The buying momentum continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday, with the benchmark KSE-100 index rising by 414.45 points.

The market closed the trading week at 117,315.58, marking a gain of 0.35%.

In a key development, Pakistan’s current account (C/A) posted a significant surplus of $1.2 billion in March 2025, against a deficit of $97 million (revised) last month, data released on Thursday by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed.

On year-on-year (YoY) basis, the C/A increased 230% against a surplus of $363 million (revised) recorded in the same month last year.

On Friday, a total of 425,121,963 shares were traded as compared to 408,066,790 shares on the previous trading day, whereas the price of shares stood at Rs 34.495 billion against Rs  32.127  billion on the last trading day.

As many as 446 companies transacted their shares in the stock market, 189 of them recorded gains and 197 sustained losses, whereas the share price of 60 companies remained unchanged.

On Thursday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) experienced a bullish trend, with the benchmark index gaining 881.03 points, or 0.76%.

On Tuesday, rating agency Fitch upgraded Pakistan’s foreign currency credit rating to ‘B-’ from ‘CCC+’ while citing increased confidence in the country’s progress in narrowing its budget deficits.

The upgrade also reflects confidence that the country would implement structural reforms, supporting its International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme performance and funding availability, Fitch said.

Record remittances

State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Jameel Ahmad announced on Monday that the country received a record $28.07 billion in remittances from overseas Pakistanis during the current financial year.

Speaking at a ceremony at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), he noted that total remittances in the first nine months of the 2024-25 financial year were 33 percent higher than the same period last year.

He further stated that remittances in February 2025 surged by nearly 40 percent year-on-year to $3.12 billion, while March saw a historic high with $4.1 billion received.

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