Buying continues at bourse, KSE-100 settles with nearly 900-point gain

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a volatile trading session on Friday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index closing the week up nearly 900 points.

Trading was weak in the first half, with the index sliding below the previous close of 184,520.96 and hitting an intra-day low of 184,462.65.

The market then stabilised and traded in a narrow band through mid-day. Sentiment turned sharply positive in the final hours of trading, triggering a steep rally that lifted the KSE-100 to an intra-day high of 185,668.65.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 185,372.20, up by 851.24 points or 0.46%.

“Lower oil prices and their positive implications for Pakistan’s external account continued to support investor sentiment,” brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post-market report.

The largest positive contributions to the index came from UBL, OGDC, FFC, MARI, and PPL, which collectively added approximately 611 points to the benchmark index, Topline said.

Pakistan’s trade deficit widened by 21.57% and reached $39.471 billion during the financial year 2025-26 as compared to $32.467 billion in the previous year, driven by a decline in exports and a sharp increase in imports, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Thursday.

On Thursday, the PSX extended its winning streak as easing geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran, coupled with a sharp decline in international oil prices, continued to underpin investor confidence. However, late-session profit-taking erased part of the day’s gains, leaving the benchmark index with a modest positive close. The KSE-100 Index settled at 184,520.96 points, gaining 470.86 points or 0.26%.

Globally, stocks made a mixed start ​to the Asian trading session on Friday after a lukewarm US jobs report poured cold ‌water on the prospect of an imminent rate hike from the Federal Reserve.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fluctuated between gains and losses, edging up 0.1% after two consecutive days of declines.

South Korea’s Kospi weighed on the regional benchmark in ​sympathy with sharp falls in chipmakers in US trading.

S&P 500 e-mini futures and Nasdaq e-mini ​futures were both up 0.1%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 1%.

U.S. job growth ⁠slowed sharply in June and payroll gains for the prior two months were revised lower, according to data released ​on Thursday, pointing to a cooling labour market. The unemployment rate dropped to 4.2% last month from 4.3% ​in May as workers left the labour force, pushing the participation rate to the lowest level in more than five years.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee posted marginal gain, appreciating 0.01%, against the US dollar in the inter-bank market on Friday. At close, the local currency settled at 278.12, a gain of Re0.03 against the greenback.

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 815.65 million from 994.75 million recorded in the previous close.

The value of shares declined to Rs42.63 billion from Rs55.79 billion in the previous session.

TPL REIT Fund I was the volume leader with 72.95 million shares, followed by TPL Corp Ltd with 48.41 million shares, and TPL Properties with 34.29 million shares.

Shares of 494 companies were traded on Friday, of which 256 registered an increase, 211 recorded a fall, and 27 remained unchanged.