PSX corporate actions explained

PSX-listed companies regularly announce corporate actions — events that change either your cash, your share count, or your cost basis. Pakistani brokers usually email a one-line announcement and leave the math to you. Equivest does the math.

The four flavours

1. Cash dividend

The company pays you cash per share you hold on the book-closure date.

• What changes: cash in your account.
• Your shares + avg cost: unchanged.
• Pakistani twist: declared as a % of FACE VALUE (face = Rs 10 unless stated). So “150% cash” means Rs 15 per share.

2. Bonus issue

You get free additional shares — usually a ratio like “20% bonus” (1 new share for every 5 held).

• What changes: more shares.
• Your avg cost: drops proportionally. Total invested unchanged.
• Example: you held 1,000 shares @ Rs 100 avg → 1,200 shares @ Rs 83.33 avg after a 20% bonus.

3. Right shares

You’re offered the right to buy new shares at a discount to market.

• What changes: more shares (if you subscribe) + cash out.
• Your avg cost: blended with the discount price.
• Example: you held 1,000 shares @ Rs 200 avg, and the company announces 25% right at Rs 80. You can subscribe to 250 new shares for Rs 20,000 → 1,250 shares @ Rs 176 avg.
• This is the math Pakistani brokers most often get wrong. We show you the new avg cost before you decide.

4. Stock split

The share is divided into smaller units — e.g. 1-for-10 split means each share becomes 10.

• What changes: share count × split ratio, price ÷ split ratio.
• Your avg cost: divided by the same ratio. Total invested unchanged.
• Rare on PSX but useful when share prices get unwieldy.

How Equivest helps

1. Calendar view — Settings → Markets → Corporate actions. Three tabs: UPCOMING, IN CLOSURE, HISTORY. Filter to “Just my positions” if you only care about the actions touching your portfolio.
2. Stock Detail banner — when you open a stock with an active or upcoming action, a colour-coded banner appears below the hero. Tap it to see the full details.
3. On-position impact preview — for every action card on a symbol you hold, we compute the new shares + new avg cost + cash flow in plain English. No spreadsheets.

What Equivest does NOT do (yet)

• We don’t auto-apply actions to your positions. This iteration is read-only — the preview is for your awareness. A future release will let you confirm an action and have the math written into your portfolio.
• We don’t subscribe to right shares for you. That’s the broker’s job.
• We don’t compute the tax footprint. Bonus / split events affect Pakistani capital-gains tax in subtle ways. Tax-year reporting is on the roadmap.

Privacy

The impact-preview card honours the privacy mask. Toggle the eye icon on the app bar to hide Rs amounts on shared screens.

Quick FAQ

What’s the difference between “book closure” and “record date”? PSX uses both. Book closure is the window during which the share register is frozen; you must be a registered holder by the start of that window to qualify.

What if I sell before book closure? You lose entitlement. The buyer gets it.

Does Equivest track every PSX action? The current catalog is curated — we ship a few realistic demo entries spanning all four types. A live feed is on the roadmap.

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Equivest does not provide investment advice. Always cross-check corporate-action terms with the official PSX announcement and your broker.