● Weekly inflation decelerates to 5.13 %
KARACHI: Stocks soared on Thursday as political uncertainty waned, yielding to brighter economic prospects, with lower inflation set to act as a catalyst for a substantial rate cut by Pakistan’s State Bank in December.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Shares Index reached 1,274.55 points or 1.27% to close at 101,357.32 points, with a high of 101,496.17 points.
Analysts credited the stellar streak to Among several factors responsible for this boost, foremost was the government’s commitment to implementing reforms.
The index crossed the 100,000-point mark for the first time in history on Thursday, reflecting a 60% year-to-date gain driven by a mix of 47% capital gains and 13% dividend yield.
Key contributing sectors include commercial banks, fertilisers, and oil and gas exploration, while top stocks like Fauji Fertilizer and United Bank Ltd played a pivotal role.
The weekly inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), decelerated to 5.13 percent on year-on-year (YoY) basis during the week ended on November 28 as compared to corresponding week of last year, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday.
Inflation saw a decrease of 0.03 percent for the combined consumption groups during the week under review as compared to the last week as it was recorded at 324.00 points as compared to 324.11 points respectively.
The weekly SPI with the base year 2015-16 =100 covers 17 urban centres and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.
SPI for the lowest consumption group of up to Rs 17,732 witnessed increase of 0.06 per cent and went up to 318.60 points from last week’s 318.40 points.
The SPI for consumption groups from Rs 17,732 to 22,888 also increased by 0.02 whereas it remained constant for consumption group from Rs 22,889-29,517. However, the inflation for consumption groups from Rs 29,518-44,175 and above Rs 44,175 decreased by 0.02 percent and 0.06 percent respectively.
During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 12 (23.53%) items increased, 09 (17.65%) items decreased and 30 (58.82%) items remained stable.
The items, which recorded major decrease in their average prices on a week-on-week basis included chicken (3.78%), tomatoes (2.23%), pulse gram (1.60%), pulse masoor (1.38%), rice basmati broken (1.15%), gur (0.59%), pulse mash (0.53%) and pulse moong (0.25%).
The commodities which recorded major increase in their average prices on week-on-week basis included potatoes (3.34%), garlic (1.69%), bananas (1.13%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (0.99%), vegetable ghee 1 kg (0.93%), mustard oil (0.91%), cooking oil 5 litre (0.77%), eggs (0.65%), washing soap (0.53%) and lpg (0.20%).
On year-on-year basis, the commodities that witnessed decrease included wheat flour (35.17%), chilies powder (20.00%), diesel (13.92%), petrol (11.64%), tea lipton (9.91%), rice basmati broken (9.37%), pulse masoor (9.14%), bread (5.99%), electricity charges for Q1 (5.07%), cooking oil 5 litre (2.13%) and sugar (1.71%).
The commodities which recorded an increase in their average prices on year-on-year basis included, ladies sandal (75.09%), pulse gram (66.40%), tomatoes (42.08%), pulse moong (38.38%), powdered milk (25.74%), beef (23.74%), gas charges for Q1 ( 15.52%), garlic (15.33%), shirting (15.27%), cooked daal (14.78%), mutton (14.73%) and georgette (13.07%).
