The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) maintained its last week’s bullish momentum on Monday with the KSE-100 index benchmark rising by 675 points driving the bulls to stand at 79,120.

The KSE-100 index climbed 586.08 points, 0.74 per cent, to stand at 79,031.04 at 11:43am from the previous close of 78,445 points on Friday.

The stocks reclaimed the title of the world’s best-performing market in the outgoing fiscal year 2023-24, with a remarkable cumulative increase of 89% (or 94% in US dollar terms) on Friday when the market closed at an all-time high of 78,445 points.

The robust rally began with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) awarding a $3 billion loan programme in late June 2023.

This was bolstered by successful reviews of the domestic economy by the IMF. Subsequently, the receipt of loan tranches totalling $3 billion during the year, along with the unlocking of new funds, including $3 billion from other multilateral and bilateral creditors, boosted foreign exchange reserves and kept investor morale high throughout the year.

Additionally, the much-awaited parliamentary elections in February 2024 and the return of stability in the rupee-dollar parity encouraged foreign investors to stage a comeback at the national bourse.

This contributed to the market’s consistent highs, while no changes in the capital gains tax (CGT) regime (contrary to speculations of rate hikes) supported the market’s historic gains of over 3,000 points in a single day following the presentation of the 2024-25 budget this month.

Last week on June 29, the stock closed nearly flat on the last trading day of the financial year 2023-24, halting its bull run. The KSE-100 index finished down by 83.29 points, or 0.11%, settling at 78,444.96.

The day began positively, with investors buying significantly in the first half, pushing the index to an intra-day high of 78,784.23. However, profit-taking in the latter hours erased the gains, causing the index to slip into negative territory.