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       KARACHI: The inflow of positive economic numbers helped the stock market maintain its bullish momentum as the KSE 100 index settled at a record peak near 95,000 on Monday.

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       Despite falling by 143.20 at 94,620.45 in early trade on profit-taking, the index bounced back with a 544.27-point rally to hit an intraday high of 95,307.92 after the country posted a third straight monthly current account surplus.

       However, the index settled at 94,995.67, up by 232.03 points or 0.24pc day-on-day.

       Topline Securities Ltd said Chief Executive Moh-ammed Sohail said the market maintained a positive trajectory as the enco-uraging IMF statement lifted investor confidence.

       He said local mutual funds were actively buying at PSX, with net purchases of Rs40bn in the past two and a half months. This has made them a major driving force behind the 20pc surge in the benchmark index since Sept 1.

       “This shift represents only a fraction of the investment moving from fixed-income to equities. With the steep decline in T-bill and bond yields, further inflows into the PSX are likely,” he anticipated.

       Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said stocks surged to an all-time high as the country posted a current account surplus of $349 million in October, and the net FDI inflow jumped 32pc to $904m in 4MFY25.

       Listing factors and reasons for the continuation of the bull run, he said investors weighed the rising SBP foreign exchange reserves, reforms for state-owned enterprises, new deals with IPPs, the fin-ance minister’s ruling out mini-budget and positive meetings with IMF.

       However, the trading volume fell 14.32pc to 765.20m shares, and its value tumbled by 22.35pc to Rs23.92 day-on-day.

       Key contributors to the index’s upward movement included Fauji Fertiliser Company, Habib Bank Ltd, Pakistan Services Ltd, Sui Northern Gas Company Ltd, and Lucky Cement, col-l-e-c-tively adding 328 points.

       Conversely, United Bank, Engro Fertiliser, and Hub Power faced profit-taking, collectively dragging the index down by 164 points.

       Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Hascol Pet-roleum (85.13m shares), Fauji Foods (60.49m shares), K-Electric (58.38m shares), Sui Southern Gas Company Ltd (48.77m shares) and PTCL (38.82m shares).

       Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2024