KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed the week, month and the year on a positive note, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 745.95 points on week-on-week, 1,919.77 points on month-on-month and 22,030.59 on a yearly basis to settle at 62,451.04 points.
The benchmark KSE-100 index registered a 14-year high growth at 54.5 percent during the calendar year. The market had dived to a three-year low at 38,136 points in January amid political instability and growing economic hardships. The growth came when foreign investors staged a comeback after a hiatus of three years with the return of stability to the rupee-dollar exchange rate. It boosted the confidence of almost all investors.
The year 2023 remained an eventful, record-making and breaking period during which the bourse skyrocketed to a historic high at 67,094 points in December. Its rally was driven by optimism over the upcoming reduction in the central bank’s key policy rate from a record high of 22 percent and significantly low share prices as compared to their peaks.
Topline Research reported that the PSX emerged as the best performing market in the second half of 2023 with 51 percent gains in rupee terms and 24 percent return in US dollars. For the full year 2023, the benchmark KSE-100 index got the title of third best performing market in local currency. Arif Habib Limited (AHL) reported that Pakistan’s bourse ranked 14th around the world in 2023 in terms of returns in US dollars.
Foreign corporate investors turned net buyers in 2023 after a gap of three years with net buying of $73.3 million – the highest after eight years. In the past three years (2020-22), foreign investors had sold shares worth $1.1 billion. Major foreign buying was witnessed in commercial banks ($36 million), oil and gas exploration companies ($17 million) owing to revision in gas tariffs and expectation of resolution of the circular debt issue, and power companies ($17 million).
Pakistan’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate witnessed a modest recovery in 3QCY23, recording at 2.13% as compared to 0.96% in 3QCY22. The current account position of the country has also improved significantly in 2023. In 11MCY23, the central bank data showed a current account surplus of $130 million, which is a significant improvement from 11MCY22’s huge deficit of $11.82bn.
