Bulls Charge Ahead as Market Soars on Acquisition Buzz
The bulls marched strong today as the KSE-100 Index surged to an intraday high of 2,760 points before settling at 160,657, up by 2,473 points or 1.56%. The rally was fueled by renewed investor optimism following merger and acquisition developments in the cement sector.
On the news front, Maple Leaf Cement (MLCF) announced plans to acquire Pioneer Cement (PIOC), as per a notice to the exchange. MLCF and Maple Leaf Capital (MLCL) jointly hold an 18.6% stake in PIOC, while the Habibullah Group controls around 58% through multiple holdings, with the remainder held by public shareholders. The potential consolidation in the sector lifted investor sentiment, steering the market firmly into bullish territory.
Index-heavy stocks including FFC, LUCK, MLCF, DGKC, and MARI were among the major gainers, collectively contributing 1,309 points to the benchmark. On the flip side, HMB, AIRLINK, TRG, and INIL together shaved off 54 points.
Investor participation remained healthy, though overall activity moderated slightly, with total traded volumes easing to 796 million shares and market turnover recorded at Rs35.1 billion. BML topped the volume chart with 112 million shares traded.
Buying momentum continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday as the benchmark KSE-100 Index surged over 2,100 points during early trading hours.
At 9:40am, the index was recorded at 160,336.49 — which was up 2,152.55 points or 1.36% — as investors showed strong confidence across key sectors.
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Widespread buying was witnessed in automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration, OMCs, power generation, and refinery stocks.
Major gainers included index-heavy counters such as HUBCO, ARL, MARI, OGDC, PPL, POL, DGKC, HBL, MCB, MEBL, and UBL, all trading firmly in the green.
