ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Stock Exchange welcomed the new year with bullish sentiment and the KSE-100 index surged by another 1600 points on Monday morning.
The KSE-100 index settled above 64,000 points within an hour after the market started its first trading day of the New Year. At 10:15 am, the benchmark index stood at 64,031 points with a gain of 1580 points or 2.53 percent.
The KSE-100 index recorded 64,064 points high and 62,672 points low levels on Monday morning. The market traded 79.026 million shares involving an amount of 62.451 billion rupees.
Earlier, the shares at the Pakistan Stock Exchange soared past 1,000 points on Monday during intraday trading in the first session of 2024.
The KSE-100 index hit 63,935.56 points at 10am, up 1484.52 points or 2.38 per cent from the previous close of 62,451.04 points.
IT exports surge close to $1 billion
During the first four months of the fiscal year 2023-24, Pakistan has demonstrated a robust performance in the Information Technology (IT) sector, raking in a substantial US $892.972 million from various IT services provided to different countries.
This figure showcases an impressive growth of 4.45 percent compared to the corresponding period in the last fiscal year, where earnings stood at US $854.918 million, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The export of computer services played a pivotal role in this surge, experiencing a 4.81 percent increase from US $688.078 million to US $721.162 million from July to October 2023. Within the realm of computer services, software consultancy services marked a remarkable growth of 93.76 percent, escalating from US $1.009 million to US $1.955 million.
Additionally, hardware consultancy services saw a modest rise of 1.13 percent, reaching US $256.408 million from US $253.543 million.
Moreover, the export of repair and maintenance services recorded a positive uptick of 3.16 percent, climbing from US $0.443 million to US $0.457 million.
The exchange of computer software services also witnessed a 4.01 percent surge, advancing from US $190.228 million to US $197.862 million.
Conversely, the export of information services experienced a dip of 25.18 percent, decreasing from US $1.390 million to US $1.040 million. Within this category, information-related services enjoyed a notable 21.04 percent increase, rising from US $0.366 million to US $0.443 million.
