The Pakistan Stock Exchange opened the week on a strong footing, with the KSE-100 index gaining 1,590 points to close at 163,847.69, marking a 0.98% increase on the day. 

Buying interest remained steady throughout the session, pushing the index to an intra-day peak of 163,903.62, while the day’s low came in at 162,058.64. Market activity remained brisk, with trading volumes hitting 483.7 million shares.

Investor sentiment was supported by the ongoing visit by a delegation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to Islamabad, where discussions are underway regarding the second review of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and the first assessment under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF). 
Additional strength came from Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb’s initiating a formal dialogue with the IMF team, further anchoring market confidence.

Arif Habib Limited wrote in its commentary that the stocks took a solid start of the week with the KSE-100 index gaining +0.98% day-on-day (DoD) with intra-day high reaching at 163.9k. Some 60 shares rose while 40 fell with Fauji Fertiliser (+3.1%), Pakistan State Oil (+6.16%) and Habib Bank (+2.51%) contributing the most to index gains.

Conversely, Engro Holdings (-0.66%), Lucky Cement (-0.73%) and DG Khan Cement (-2.52%) were the biggest index drags, the AHL stated.

In corporate news, Ghandhara Automobiles (+0.04%) announced its financial result for FY25 whereby the company posted highest ever Profit After Tax (PAT) of Rs4,096 million with Earnings Per Share (EPS) of Rs71.85), significantly up by Rs11 year-on-year (YoY).

During the fourth quarter of FY25, the profitability of the company and Dividend Per Share (DPS) of Rs10 which was above expectations. Additionally, Air Link Communication (+10.0%) announced FY25 EPS of Rs12.01, +3% YoY and DPS of Rs7, also beating expectations.

AHL estimates weekly draw to remain at 165k with support rising to 162k. Overall, trading volume decreased to 1.28 billion shares compared with previous close of 1.71 billion. Trading value stood at Rs65.7 billion.

Shares of 482 companies were traded. Of these, 235 closed higher, 216 dropped and 31 remained unchanged. WorldCall Telecom led the volume with trading in 119 million shares.