Friday, December 08 2023

PSX to hold first-ever Sukuk auction today
The Ministry of Finance is issuing for the first time a one-year Islamic bond through the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday to raise Rs30 billion. As opposed to the earlier practice where commercial banks would place bids for the government debt, the new method will allow the general public to participate directly in the bond auctions. This is expected to bring the interest or profit rate on the government debt down because of mass participation from a cross-section of investors, including retail ones who’ll get to make risk-free investments through the stock exchange easily. Moreover, the listed status of the government debt will enable investors to buy and sell the bonds on the exchange just like ordinary shares.
Related news categories: business economic-indicators psx stock-exchanges

Thursday, December 07 2023

962-point rally tosses PSX near 64,000
The benchmark index of the stock market crossed the psychological barrier of 64,000 points in intraday trading on Wednesday before closing at yet another all-time high. Topline Securities said bulls left little space for bears to operate as strong buying across the board kept up the momentum throughout business hours. However, investors’ sentiments changed for specific sectors from the preceding session. Most favourite sectors on Wednesday for value hunters were technology, exploration and production and banking. Arif Habib Ltd CEO Shahid Ali Habib said the index has gained 54.5 per cent since Pakistan signed a loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in June. The value of all shares listed on the exchange has also gone up 46pc since the end of June to $32bn versus $22bn at the end of 2022-23, he said. “Foreign activity has also increased in the market with a net buy of $50 million in 2023-24 to date,” he added. As a result, the KSE-100 index closed at 63,917.72 points after gaining 961.70 points or 1.53pc from the preceding session.
Related news categories: business economic-indicators psx stock-exchanges

PSX sees sole IPO in 2023
The outgoing calendar year witnessed just one initial public offering (IPO) on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) that helped the company’s sponsors raise a meagre sum of Rs435 million. “This is the lowest amount raised in a year in the past decade and a half,” said a research report compiled by Topline Securities Ltd. The previous record low was Rs800m raised in 2013. In terms of the number of IPOs, the PSX witnessed a single listing after 2019. This was in sharp contrast to the preceding five- and 10-year average of four IPOs a year. “We attribute this bad IPO trend to macroeconomic instability, coupled with the looming threat of default, cheap valuations and political uncertainty discouraging equity investment,” it said in the report released on Wednesday. The single IPO that the PSX saw in 2023 was of Symmetry Group Ltd. This was Pakistan’s first publicly listed digital technology company with a focus on digitalisation of consumer-centric functions of organisations. The company offered 101.24m shares at a strike price of Rs4.30 per share, raising Rs435m in August with an oversubscription of 1.58 times.
Related news categories: business economic-indicators psx stock-exchanges

Sui Southern Gas Company subsidiary to go public
Sui Southern Gas Company Ltd (SSGC) said on Wednesday it’s going to convert SSGC LPG Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary, into a public limited firm by offering its shares to the general public. The government-owned gas distribution company said it’ll initiate the process for the “issuance of 33.3 million shares” of the converted company by means of an initial public offering (IPO) at “any time in (the) future”. SSGC LPG Ltd is a fully integrated LPG marketing and distribution company, which acquires gas from local producers besides importing it through its terminal at Port Qasim. Since the LPG subsidiary’s existing paid-up capital consists of 100m shares, the issuance of 33.3m new shares through the IPO will reduce SSGC’s shareholding to about 75pc post-listing. SSGC LPG Ltd recorded sales of 98,700MT in 2022-23, up 127 per cent from a year ago. Its total terminal volume hit 164,204MT, up 27.3pc year-on-year. Industry-wide, its share in the terminal business remained 70pc versus 50pc a year ago. Its share in overall LPG sales was 7pc as opposed to 2.8pc in the preceding fiscal year.
Related news categories: business economic-indicators oilgas-exploration oilgas-marketing psx stock-exchanges
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Wednesday, December 06 2023

Unrelenting bulls set eyes on next milestone
The benchmark of major shares sustained its bullish trend on Tuesday and hit yet another high just shy of the psychological barrier of 63,000 points. Topline Securities Ltd said the upward momentum reflected a boost in investors’ confidence driven by optimistic expectations of an improved economic landscape going forward. “This positive outlook is supported by anticipated financial inflows from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and friendly countries,” it said. Additionally, there’s speculation about a likely reduction in the benchmark interest rate, currently at 22 per cent, in the upcoming meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the State Bank of Pakistan. According to a recent poll of key market participants conducted by the brokerage on the monetary policy expectations, 63 per cent of participants anticipated the interest rate would remain unchanged.
Related news categories: business economic-indicators psx stock-exchanges