KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a record surge at the start of the business week on Monday as the index climbed by 258.04 points, crossing 36,200.
The bullish trend continues from the previous week as the index touched 36,000 points on Thursday, an indication of investor confidence in the economy.
Read more: MSCI to discuss Pakistan’s re-entry
According to Muhammad Sohail, CEO of Topline Securities, the high confidence is in anticipation of the upcoming Annual Market Classification Review by the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) on June 14 to discuss upgrading PSX's classification to an Emerging Market.
"Positive results are expected by market players in anticipation of the meeting and the emerging market status."
The biggest losers of the day were Pakistan Tobacco and Indus Dyeing, while pharmaceuticals and chemicals were the biggest gainers.
MSCI, a US-based provider of stock market indexes and portfolio analytics, had hinted last year Pakistan's inclusion in the Emerging Markets category will be discussed in June 2016.
Market players expect the improved status to bring in fresh foreign investment and opportunities to Pakistan in the future. According to reports last week, foreign fund managers had issued positive views to the MSCI regarding Pakistan’s qualification to be reclassified as an emerging market.
"A market correction of 2,000 to 3,000 points can be expected," said Sohail, in case the upgrade falls through, bringing PSX to the low 30,000-point range.
As of 2:18pm, the market settled at 36,233 points after an initial high in the morning of 36,305.24, a 0.72 per cent change.
