The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) opened the week with a bang as share price went through the roof tossing the index to another historic level on Monday. At 12.15 pm, the PSX’s benchmark KSE-100 index was hovering at 187,144.34, an increase of 2,045.51 points or 1.09%.
Out of 562 active companies in the market, share prices of 304 companies advanced, 146 declined, while 112 remained unchanged.
Buying interest was observed in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, fertilizer, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation, and refinery.
Index-heavy stocks, including ARL, HUBCO, MARI, OGDC, POL, PPL, PSO, SNGPL, SSGC, MCB, MEBL, and NBP, traded in the green.
Analysts attributed the buying rally to expectations of a policy rate cut in the upcoming Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, which is scheduled for 26 January 2026.
Earlier on Friday, the PSX had staged a strong recovery, snapping days-long bearish momentum as increasing forex reserves had lifted investor sentiments.
The KSE-100 index gained a whopping 3,159.72 points to climb to 184,616.05 points, marking a positive change of 1.74% compared to the previous close of 181,456.33 points.
Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves inched up by $16 million over the past week, according to figures released by the State Bank of Pakistan.
The central bank said its official reserves rose from $16.0557 billion to $16.0718 billion, showing a modest gain during the week.
Overall, the country’s total reserves climbed to $21.2484 billion.
The State Bank also noted that commercial banks’ holdings went up by $5.6 million, reaching $5.1927 billion.
Officials said the uptick offers some breathing space for the economy, even as the country continues to keep a close watch on external inflows and outflows.
