ISLAMABAD: Positive sentiment returned to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday, as the benchmark KSE-100 Index closed with a gain of nearly 1,300 points.
Bullish trend persisted throughout the trading session, pushing the KSE-100 Index to an intra-day high of 149,234.94.
At close, the stock market settled at 148,617.77, showing an increase of 1,274.27 points or 0.86%.
Strong buying activity was witnessed across key sectors, including cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration, oil marketing companies (OMCs), power generation, and refineries. Major index-heavy stocks such as ARL, NRL, HUBCO, MARI, POL, PPL, SSGC, HBL, MCB, and NBP all traded in the green.
A total of 1,342,177,945 shares were traded as compared to 935,466,958 shares on the previous trading day, whereas the price of shares stood at PKR 52.305 billion against PKR 33.515 billion on the last trading day.
As many as 474 companies transacted their shares in the stock market, 236 of them recorded gains and 203 met losses, whereas the share price of 35 companies remained unchanged.
On Thursday, the benchmark KSE-100 Index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed in negative territory, weighed down by ongoing pressure from futures rollover activity. The index settled at 147,343.50 points, down by 150.52 points or 0.10%.
Global trend
On the international front, Asian equities edged higher on Friday, buoyed by a technology-led rally on Wall Street. Investor attention has now shifted to a key US inflation report due later in the day, which is expected to provide further insight into the Federal Reserve’s interest rate outlook.
Despite falling short of investors’ lofty expectations, quarterly results from artificial intelligence giant Nvidia confirmed continued strength in AI infrastructure spending. This helped propel the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average to record-high closes overnight.
Asian markets carried the positive momentum into Friday, with MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rising by 0.4%. However, futures in Europe and the United States saw a slight decline.
EUROSTOXX 50 futures dropped 0.2%, FTSE futures eased 0.08%, while S&P 500 futures slipped 0.08% and Nasdaq futures fell 0.15%.
In China, the tech-heavy STAR 50 Index fell 2.5%, following a more than 7% surge in the previous session. Shares of Chinese chipmaker Cambricon Technologies dropped over 5% after the company issued a risk alert to investors in a stock exchange filing, noting a sharp increase in its share price since late July.
Nonetheless, the CSI300 blue-chip index rose by 0.7%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.5%. Japan’s Nikkei, meanwhile, edged down 0.4%.
