Following optimism regarding the upcoming federal budget, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued its upward trend to cross 120,000 points during intraday trading. However, despite investor confidence surging in the early hours of the day, the market closed in the red on Monday.

 

The KSE-100, the benchmark index of the PSX, reached an intraday high of 120,590.77 points. The index peaked at 9:56 AM after which significant profit taking took hold of the market, causing the market to close at a lower, yet respectable, 118,877.80 points.

For reference, the KSE-100 closed at 119,691.09 points on Friday, after which the index recorded a shrinking of 0.68 percent during trading hours on Monday, leading to an 813.29 point rise. The market displayed a slowdown around 3:25 PM as the KSE-100 hit its intraday trading low of 118,672.84 points, closing the day lower than when trading hours started.

 

Of the 17 indexes listed on the exchange, 14 remained in the red with the All-share index (ALLSHR) shrinking by 0.4 percent, which translates into a 302.57 point loss for the index. Unlike the KSE-100, which tracks the performance of the 100 largest and most liquid companies, the ALLSHR index records the performance of all publicly listed companies on the PSX.

 

A vast array of companies witnessed a rise in share prices with Invest Capital Investment Bank Limited (ICIBL) and TPL Trakker Limited (TPLT) winning big, to the tune of growth rates that sat at 57.14 percent (ICIBL) and 15.97 percent (TPLT). 

 

However, not every publicly listed stock witnessed an improvement as many companies witnessed sharp declines. Of these declining companies, the one that fared the worst during intra-day trading was Idrees Textile Mills Limited (IDRT), which posted a 10.01 percent decline in its position.

 

Recent reports have suggested that the KSE-100 index could cross 165,000 points by December 2025, owing to a drop in interest rates and an improved state of the wider economy. These factors are responsible for creating a business-friendly environment, lending weight to analysts’ claims.