Bulls were unable to maintain their grip at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), as investors engaged in profit-taking with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing nearly 900 points during trading on Thursday.
At close, the benchmark index was hovering at 156,141.24, a decrease of 879.55 points or 0.56%.
Positive contributions from MEBL, ILP, and KTML added a combined 152 points to the index. However, these gains were overshadowed by notable losses in ENGROH, PPL, MARI, EFERT, and FFC, which together shaved off 540 points from the benchmark, brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post-market report.
On Wednesday, PSX closed on a bullish note for the ninth consecutive session to settle at a new level amid active participation from investors across key sectors. The index gained 457.27 points, or 0.29%, to close at 157,020.80 points.
Internationally, it was Oracle mania that lighted a fire under Asian tech stocks on Thursday, as Japan Taiwan and South Korea set records in what was otherwise set to be a subdued session before high-stakes US inflation data.
Tech investor SoftBank surged 9% in Tokyo after Stargate Project partner Oracle soared 36% in its biggest one-day gain since 1992, taking the 48-year-old tech firm close to the exclusive $1 trillion market-cap club.
That was all thanks to Oracle’s expectations that AI would drive demand for its cloud infrastructure. That prompted pretty much everything AI-related in Asia to rise, by 1.2% in the Nikkei, 1% in Taiwan and 1.8% for Chinese blue chips.
Oracle’s stock rises more sharply than others over the year, moving ahead of its competitors.
AI fever did not stretch to European stocks, which looked set for a muted open ahead of an interest rate decision from the European Central Bank. EUROSTOXX 50 futures inched up 0.1%; German futures even less.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee maintained its positive momentum against the US dollar in the inter-bank market on Thursday. At close, the rupee settled at 281.56, a gain of Re0.04 against the greenback. This was the rupee’s 25th straight gain against the greenback.
Volume on the all-share index increased to 1,279.94 million from 996.27 million recorded in the previous close. The value of shares declined to Rs50.21 billion from Rs52.73 billion in the previous session.
Agha Steel Ind. was the volume leader with 113.01 million shares, followed by WorldCall Telecom with 85.63 million shares, and K-Electric Ltd with 69.82 million shares.
Shares of 487 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 225 registered an increase, 223 recorded a fall, while 39 remained unchanged.