PSX: KSE-100 slips lower, sheds 353 points after early gains fade

A volatile trading session was observed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), as the KSE-100 index remained under pressure throughout Friday’s session, closing with a loss of over 350 points on Friday.

The index opened near the day’s upper levels and initially traded around 168,000, hitting an intra-day high of 168,134.12, but selling pressure gradually dragged it lower through the morning.

It continued to decline towards mid-day, briefly stabilising before a sharp drop in the afternoon pushed it towards the intra-day low of 166,837.72.

The index subsequently staged a partial recovery, rebounding towards 167,300, but failed to sustain the gains.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 167,089.27, down 352.63 points or 0.21%.

“The lacklustre performance reflected investors’ preference to remain on the sidelines amid a lack of fresh market triggers and persistently elevated oil prices,” brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post-market report.

Top positive contribution to the index came from EFERT, TPLRF1, ENGROH, PSEL & POL, as they cumulatively contributed 131 points to the index; whereas top negative contribution to the index came from HBL, UBL, MCB, OGDC and FFC, as they cumulatively weighed down on the index by 334 points, it added.

On a weekly basis, the KSE-100 was down 0.69%, “primarily due to persistent geopolitical uncertainty, elevated international oil prices, concerns over Pakistan’s widening trade deficit, and rising global bond yields. These factors encouraged a cautious trading approach”, Topline said.

On Thursday, a sharp rise in global crude oil prices amid heightened Middle East geopolitical risks triggered widespread profit-taking at the PSX. The KSE-100 Index declined 1,138.50 points, or 0.68%, to close at 167,441.91 points.

The inflow of overseas workers’ remittances into Pakistan stood at $3.6 billion in September 2026, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data showed on Friday. Remittances showed 12.7% increase on year-on-year basis from $3.2 billion recorded in September 2025.

Globally, Asian stocks slipped on Friday and were poised for a second straight weekly drop as investors fretted about elevated energy prices, bond market ructions and the huge ​sums needed to fund AI investment.

Brent crude futures were at $103.70 per barrel in Asian hours after surging more than 4% in ‌the previous session on concerns over the war in the Middle East that has fanned inflation worries and led to higher rates across the globe.

President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the US will not launch an attack on Iran before November’s US midterm elections, although traders remained sceptical of any progress being made to end the war.

In stocks, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.16%, set for an over 1% drop for the week. Markets in South ​Korea and Taiwan were closed for a holiday. Japan’s Nikkei fell more than 1%.

Tech stocks led Wall Street’s main indexes lower overnight after a report that ​OpenAI’s annualised revenue was $20 billion less than the company previously signalled hit sentiment.

Investors were ​also weighing a massive round of fundraising that appears to be on the way, with SpaceX, Broadcom and Oracle all expected to raise billions to buy high-end AI chips.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee extended its marginal gains against the US dollar in the inter-bank market on Friday. The local unit closed the day at 277.00, a gain of Re0.01 against the greenback.

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 309.41 million from 365.87 million recorded in the previous close.

The value of shares declined to Rs15.44 billion from Rs17.72 billion in the previous session.

Cnergyico PK was the volume leader with 27.28 million shares, followed by Pak Refinery with 24.12 million shares, and Treet Corp with 22.90 million shares.

Shares of 497 companies were traded on Friday, of which 243 registered an increase, 203 recorded a fall, and 51 remained unchanged.