KARACHI, Nov 4 (Focus Pakistan): Nine of every ten rupees the Pakistan Stock Exchange earned after tax last year came from companies it only partly owns. Yet less than half of those associate earnings reached PSX in cash. Those two facts sit inside a 37% jump in PSX profit.
PSX’s audited accounts put profit after tax at Rs2.24 billion for the year to June 30, 2026. The year before, it made Rs1.63bn. Earnings per share rose 76 paisa to Rs2.80.
Then the story turns. Profit fell 20% to Rs558 million in the July-September quarter as equity trading cooled. Shareholders also took home less. PSX paid a final dividend of Re1 a share in October, amounting to Rs801m, down 41% from the Rs1.36bn it paid for the previous financial year. The cut came in a boom year for the market.
The real engine sits outside the exchange’s own books. PSX holds stakes in the Central Depository Company, National Clearing Company of Pakistan, Pakistan Mercantile Exchange and E-Clear. Its share of their profit jumped 33% to Rs2.02bn, roughly 90% of the bottom line. The catch: PSX received only 47% of that figure in cash, or Rs949m in dividends. PSX’s own risk slide flags that dependence.
The core business did improve sharply. Operating profit came in at Rs778m, almost twice last year’s number and the best in six years. Revenue grew 19.3% to Rs2.94bn. Administrative spending barely moved, up 4.8%. The cost-to-income ratio fell to 43.5%. Three years ago, it stood at 86.3%, and the exchange ran an operating loss.
A frantic market did the heavy lifting. The KSE-100 index closed the fiscal year at 180,302 points, a 43.5% gain in rupee terms. Average daily traded value across all markets surged to Rs63.1bn from Rs41.7bn. Trading fees rose 50% to Rs1.08bn without any change in the tariff.
Also Read: PSX Revives Long-Delayed Stock Options Plan, Will Investors Finally Bite?
Investor participation widened. About 190,000 new investors opened accounts, the most in a single year, taking the total to 583,052. Eleven companies floated shares and raised Rs18.4bn.
That momentum faded after June. In the first quarter, shares worth Rs46.4bn changed hands on an average day. A year earlier, that figure stood at Rs58.8bn. Trading fees followed it down, falling 22% to Rs218m. Administrative costs climbed 12.5% to Rs596m on technology and IT maintenance. The levy and tax charge almost quadrupled to Rs99m from Rs27m.
Government borrowing provided a cushion. Islamabad raised Rs1.48 trillion through 10 Sukuk auctions on the exchange, and PSX’s auction fees almost tripled to Rs60m. Non-trading income now makes up 70% of operating revenue, compared with 62% a year ago. Total revenue held flat at Rs731m.
Management does not offer a forecast. In its outlook slide, it says the market’s near-term direction depends on how long “the external shock lasts”, and it tracks a 12% policy rate against inflation near 10%.
Shareholders put five questions to PSX in writing. One goes straight to the money: does PSX plan to list CDC or NCCPL, two of the four associate companies that underpin most of its earnings? The exchange’s presentation lists the question without an answer.
New products sit in the pipeline. The exchange launched a Shariah-compliant market on October 29, plans single stock options and expects to introduce a Sustainability Index in Q2 FY27. Artificial intelligence now reviews right-share documents in under an hour, a job that once took five working days.
The balance sheet carries no debt for a sixth straight year. Shareholders’ equity rose to Rs13.3bn, funding 81% of assets. That gives the exchange a strong financial cushion. Its first-quarter numbers, though, show how heavily its earnings still lean on a busy market and on associates it does not control.
