KARACHI – Improving economic outlook and easing inflation have propelled the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) to another record high on Tuesday as it crossed the mark of 149,000 points for first time in history.
As trading continues, the benchmark KSE-100 index has recorded gains of more than 1,000 points to climb to 149,211.15 points as record-breaking rally.
A day earlier, it also witnessed bullish trend, gaining 1,704.79 points, a positive of 1.16 percent, closing at 148,196.42 points.
A total of 610,314,508 shares with total value of Rs39.17 billion were traded during the day. As many as 487 companies transacted their shares in the stock market, 283 of them recorded gains and 175 sustained losses, whereas the share price of 29 companies remained unchanged.
On Monday, Fitch Ratings, in its report, said Pakistan’s banks are set to benefit from better opportunities to generate business volumes due to improving operating conditions amid receding macroeconomic headwinds.
It said this view is reinforced by Pakistan’s improved sovereign credit profile, as reflected in Fitch’s upgrade of Pakistan’s Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘B-‘/Stable from ‘CCC+’ in April 2025, underpinned by ongoing economic recovery, reforms and improving fiscal performance.
Pakistan’s economic recovery comes after a period of significant turmoil and high inflation. We expect the country’s real GDP growth to accelerate to 3.5% by 2027 from 2.5% in 2024.
It noted that consumer price inflation eased to 4.1% in July 2025 from its peak of 38% in May 2023, and we expect it to average around 5% in 2025. The halving of the policy rate since May 2024 to 11% and a stabilising external position, evident in lower currency volatility and current account surpluses, should support this recovery.
Fitch expects the combination of lower interest rates and an improving macroeconomic environment to stimulate private credit demand, supporting steadier loan and deposit growth, and banks’ financial performance. Continued fiscal and economic reforms could enable banks to deploy more credit to the private sector, which reached a cyclical low of 9.7% of GDP in 2024, and reduce banks’ dependence on public-sector lending.
