KARACHI: Stocks on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) started the day with higher values on Friday following the integration of 15 stocks into the Frontier Market Index by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI).
The MSCI Frontier Markets Index is designed to represent the performance of medium and large-cap stocks across 28 Frontier Markets countries. This index includes a total of 99 components, encompassing approximately 85% of the market capitalization that is freely tradable in each country.
During the intraday trading session, the benchmark KSE-100 index experienced a rise of 702.01 points or 1.47%, reaching a value of 48,510.35 points at 10:19 am. This increase came after it had previously reached a peak of 48,898.82 points an hour earlier.
In its latest quarterly review, 41 stocks were added to the MSCI Frontier Markets Small Cap Index. Notably, Pakistan’s influence within this index is projected to notably increase, rising from its current level of 0.6% to a more substantial range of 2.6% to 2.7%.
The report also highlighted that this inclusion aims to attract higher levels of foreign investment, as foreign investors have already directed a total of $22.8 million into the equity market since the beginning of the fiscal year 2023-24.
Samiullah Tariq, the Head of Research at Pakistan-Kuwait Investment Company, shared insights, noting that the market’s upward movement is attributed to the increased participation of Pakistani entities in the MSCI index and the corresponding rise in their weighting.
