P/E ratio on PSX: median P/E of every sector

The P/E ratio (the “pe ratio psx” figure on every screen) is a share’s price divided by its earnings per share (EPS) over the last four reported quarters. As of 9 October 2026, the median P/E across the 364 active PSX companies with positive trailing earnings was 9.4x. Sector medians ran from 4.1x for real estate investment trusts to 18.0x for modarabas. Commercial banks had a median of 6.6x, cement 8.0x and technology and communication 13.2x. A company that lost money has no meaningful P/E and is left out of every figure. The table below shows the company count behind each median.

What is the P/E ratio?

P/E answers one question: how many rupees does the market pay for one rupee of a company’s yearly profit?

P/E = share price ÷ earnings per share (EPS) over the trailing twelve months

A share at Rs 100 that earned Rs 10 per share over the last four reported quarters has a P/E of 10x. Put the other way round, the earnings yield is 10%: if profit stayed the same, the company’s earnings would equal 10% of today’s price each year. Neither number says the company will keep earning that much. It is a snapshot of price against the past year.

“Trailing” matters. EPS here is the sum of the last four quarters that the company has published, taken from the financial results that listed companies file on PSX. A company with a June year-end and one with a December year-end therefore reach their annual figures at different times, and between results the EPS in the denominator does not change while the price does. When the numbers below say “as of 9 October 2026”, the price is that day’s close and the EPS is whatever each company had last reported by then.

Why does a loss-making company have no meaningful P/E?

If EPS is negative, price divided by EPS is a negative number, and a negative P/E has no useful reading. It does not mean the share is cheap, and it does not rank below a P/E of 3x. A company that earns almost nothing has the opposite problem: dividing by a tiny positive EPS produces an enormous P/E (several hundred times, in some cases) that reflects a near-zero denominator rather than a rich valuation.

So the usual rule is the one used here:

Negative EPS: no P/E. The company is excluded.
Missing EPS: no P/E. The company is excluded.
Very small positive EPS: a P/E is computed, but treat it as an artefact. Medians shrug off these outliers; averages do not, which is why this post uses medians.

In the SuperX snapshot dated 9 October 2026, 494 active, non-ETF symbols were trading and 364 of them had a positive trailing P/E. The other 130 had a loss or no usable EPS. Another 179 symbols are dormant and 39 have never traded, and neither group is counted.

Median P/E by PSX sector, as of 9 October 2026

How the table was built: SuperX’s market snapshot, dated by its market_as_of field to 9 October 2026, gives each company’s closing price and trailing P/E. For each sector the table keeps active companies with a positive P/E, takes the median (the middle value, or the mean of the two middle values when the count is even), and shows how many companies went into it. Dormant and never-traded symbols, exchange-traded funds and companies with negative or missing EPS are excluded, and only sectors with at least five companies that qualify are shown. Rows are sorted from the lowest median to the highest. That ordering is a rule for the table, not a ranking of quality.

Sector (links to the sector page)	Median P/E	Companies used	Active companies in sector
Real estate investment trusts	4.1x	5	7
Oil and gas marketing companies	5.5x	8	10
Insurance	6.5x	25	28
Commercial banks	6.6x	18	19
Textile spinning	6.9x	26	43
Sugar and allied industries	7.5x	15	28
Automobile parts and accessories	7.6x	7	12
Automobile assemblers	7.6x	9	10
Glass and ceramics	7.9x	5	8
Cement	8.0x	16	19
Textile composite	9.1x	24	38
Investment banks, investment and securities companies	9.3x	26	34
Engineering	10.4x	12	18
Power generation and distribution	10.7x	11	16
Chemicals	11.3x	21	26
Pharmaceuticals	12.2x	13	14
Technology and communication	13.2x	15	22
Food and personal care products	13.8x	22	26
Paper, board and packaging	14.6x	10	11
Miscellaneous	14.7x	17	19
Cable and electrical goods	15.4x	7	7
Modarabas	18.0x	14	20

Three cautions about reading it:

A median of five or seven companies is thin. One company moving changes it noticeably. Look at the “Companies used” column before trusting a row.
The sector pages may show a slightly different median. The sector pages on SuperX take the median over every listed member, including dormant symbols that still carry an old P/E, and pick the upper middle value when the count is even. For most sectors the two agree. For technology and communication, for example, the sector page figure is higher than 13.2x for that reason.
Sectors with fewer than five qualifying companies are not in the table. That includes two the questions above often ask about, covered next.

Why do banks, E&P, cement, fertiliser and tech trade at different multiples?

A P/E is the market’s judgement about how durable and how fast-growing the earnings are, so businesses with different earnings profiles settle at different multiples. These are general mechanisms, not predictions for any company.

Banks. Commercial banks’ median of 6.6x (18 companies) is among the lowest in the table. Bank profit moves with the SBP policy rate, the gap between lending and deposit rates, the tax rate on banks and the size of their government-securities books, so investors tend to treat a peak-rate year’s profit as less repeatable. In the same snapshot, 16 of the 19 active banks show a trailing dividend yield above zero, so much of the profit is paid out rather than retained.

Exploration and production (E&P). Only four active companies in the sector have a positive P/E, so no median is shown. As of 9 October 2026 they were OGDC at 5.4x, PPL at 6.1x, POL at 6.8x and MARI at 8.8x. Their profit follows oil and gas prices and the rupee, which swing more than most input costs do, and that volatility is usually reflected in a lower multiple.

Cement. The median is 8.0x across 16 companies. Cement is capital-heavy, sold mostly in Pakistan, and its profit rises and falls with construction demand, coal and freight costs and the price of cement itself. Cyclical earnings tend to carry modest multiples.

Fertiliser. Four active companies have a positive P/E, which is below the cut-off. Fatima Fertilizer was at 10.2x, Fauji Fertilizer at 10.0x and Engro Fertilizers at 12.4x. The fourth, Arif Habib Corporation, which PSX classifies in the same sector, was at 1.5x. That gap shows why a count of four is not enough for a median. Fauji Fertilizer and Engro Fertilizers showed trailing dividend yields of 7.7% and 6.4% on the same date, so their multiples sit alongside regular cash payouts.

Technology and communication. The median is 13.2x across 15 companies, higher than banks or cement. When investors expect profit to grow quickly, they pay more for each rupee of today’s profit, which pushes the multiple up. The sector also contains small companies with thin earnings, which can lift the median for the same reason.

The pattern to take away is simple. A low P/E can mean the market sees the profit as temporary. A high P/E can mean it sees the profit as growing, or that the profit is small and not stable. The ratio does not tell you which.

What a P/E cannot tell you

It ignores debt. Two companies with the same P/E can carry very different borrowings.
It is backward-looking. Last year’s EPS may include a one-off gain, a tax reversal or a bad quarter. Check the quarterly results on PSX before leaning on one number.
It is not comparable across sectors without care. A 6x P/E for a bank and a 6x P/E for a software firm describe different risks. Compare a company with its own sector median and its own history first.
REIT and fund-like listings follow different logic. Real estate investment trusts value property, so their P/E is a weak guide compared with their net asset value.

To check a single company, look at its page in the stock screener, where the P/E and earnings yield sit next to price, market cap and dividend yield. For why market cap, not share price, is the right size measure for a company, see market cap vs share price on PSX. A high yield next to a low P/E is what the highest dividend yield stocks list ranks, with its rule stated.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good P/E ratio on PSX?

There is no single good number. As of 9 October 2026 the median across active PSX companies with positive earnings was 9.4x, and sector medians ranged from 4.1x to 18.0x. Compare a company with its own sector rather than with the whole market.

How is the P/E ratio calculated?

Divide the share price by earnings per share for the last four reported quarters. A Rs 100 share that earned Rs 10 per share has a P/E of 10x. PSX companies publish their quarterly results on psx.com.pk.

Why does a PSX stock show no P/E?

Either its trailing EPS is negative, so the ratio is not meaningful, or the EPS is missing. Of the 494 active, non-ETF symbols in SuperX’s 9 October 2026 snapshot, 130 had no positive P/E.

Is a low P/E always cheap?

No. A low P/E can mean the market expects earnings to fall, that last year included a one-off gain, or that the sector’s earnings are cyclical. It is a starting point for reading the accounts, not a conclusion.

What is the average P/E of the KSE-100?

This post measures the median across active companies in all sectors (9.4x on 9 October 2026), not the KSE-100 only. The KSE-100 constituents page lists the P/E of each index member.

Education, not investment advice.