After securing significant gains in the previous session, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) saw subdued activity as the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled on a flat note on Thursday.
Lacklustre trading activity persisted amid low volumes. At close, the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 117,806.74, a gain of 34.43 points or 0.03%.
Buying was observed in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, power generation, and oil and gas exploration companies. Index-heavy stocks, including HUBCO, PSO, POL, MCB, MEBL and UBL traded in the green.
On Wednesday, bullish momentum dominated the PSX as investors rejoiced over Pakistan’s successful staff-level deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which pushed the benchmark KSE-100 Index to close with a gain of nearly 1,140 points.
Internationally, Asian shares skidded with Wall Street on Thursday while the dollar hovered near a three-week high after US President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on all auto imports, ratcheting up a global trade war that risks fuelling inflation.
Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.2%, led by heavy losses in automakers. Asian stocks rise on easing tariff worries; dollar perks up Toyota Motor shares tumbled 3.4%, and both Mazda Motor and Subaru plunged about 6%.
South Korea’s KOSPI dropped 0.7%. Japanese and South Korean automakers have a big presence in the US market.
Shares of Chinese EV makers also fell, with Nio down 2.8% and Xpeng 1.1% lower. China’s blue chip index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng were both down 0.3%.
Trump late on Wednesday announced plans for long-promised 25% tariffs on automotive imports that are set to go into effect on April 2.
However, he said planned reciprocal tariffs on all countries will be “lenient”.
On China, he said he may give Beijing some reduction in tariffs to get a deal done to sell TikTok.
Nasdaq futures dropped 0.2% and S&P 500 futures fell 0.1% in Asia. Wall Street already ended sharply lower on expectations of such a move, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq slumping more than 2% on Wednesday.
Volume on the all-share index decreased to 329.99 million from 356.73 million recorded in the previous close.
Whereas, the value of shares declined to Rs19.78 billion from Rs37.49 billion in the previous session.
Cnergyico PK was the volume leader with 45.5 million shares, followed by Arif Habib Corp with 20.57 million shares, and WorldCall Telecom with 16.23 million shares.
Shares of 447 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 169 registered an increase, 216 recorded a fall, while 62 remained unchanged.
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