KSE-30 Index Today

KSE-30 stands for the Karachi Stock Exchange 30 Index. The KSE-30 tracks the thirty most liquid companies on the exchange and is the index derivatives and institutional mandates are usually written against. Liquidity, not just size, governs entry: a large company that rarely trades is excluded, because the index is meant to be replicable by someone actually buying the shares. It is more concentrated than the KSE-100 and therefore moves more sharply when a heavyweight sector such as banks or energy re-rates.

The KSE-30 is calculated on free-float market capitalisation. Each constituent contributes in proportion to the value of the shares actually available to trade, not its total shares in issue, so a company whose sponsors hold most of the stock moves the index far less than its headline size suggests. The total is then divided by a divisor that is adjusted whenever the membership changes or a company issues or buys back shares, which is what keeps the level continuous across a recomposition rather than jumping on the day of the change. The series is scaled from a base of 10,000 points at 30 June 2006.

The KSE-30 currently holds 30 companies, listed in full on this page with each one's share of the index by market capitalisation. Membership is decided by: liquidity screened, then ranked by free float. The list comes from the exchange's own daily market watch, so it changes when the exchange changes it.

The KSE-100 is the benchmark: one hundred companies, chosen so that every sector is represented by at least its largest member, which is why it is the number quoted as "the market". The KSE-30 is thirty companies screened for liquidity first, so a large but thinly traded company is excluded — it is built to be replicable by someone actually buying the shares, which is why derivatives and institutional mandates are written against it. Both are free-float weighted, and the KSE-30 is the more concentrated of the two, so it moves more sharply when a heavyweight sector re-rates.