PSX: KSE-100 Index gains nearly 400 points after volatile trading

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a volatile trading session on Friday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index swinging both ways before closing the week’s last session on a positive note.

The benchmark index opened the session on a weak note, falling sharply from around the 175,300 to an intra-day low of 174,515.38.

It subsequently staged a recovery, as buying interest then emerged, particularly around the mid-day session. In the final phase of trading, buying momentum accelerated, lifting the index sharply to an intra-day high of 175,418.29.

At close, the KSE-100 settled at 175,328.82, up 399.14 points, or 0.23%.

“The lackluster activity was largely attributable to investors’ preference to remain on the sidelines,” brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post-market report.

MEBL, BAHL, MARI, PPL, and OGDC were the top positive contributors, cumulatively adding 250 points to the index. Conversely, UBL, ATRL, PSEL, CNERGY, and FFC collectively dragged the index down by 212 points, it added.

On Thursday, PSX remained highly volatile as rising international oil prices amid ongoing geopolitical conflicts kept investors cautious, although late-session profit-taking failed to erase a modest recovery in the benchmark KSE-100 Index. It gained 153.09 points, or 0.09%, to close at 174,929.69 on Thursday.

Globally, Asian shares rose on Friday as investors embraced a global rally ahead of crucial US jobs data, while bonds found some much-needed relief after a top Federal Reserve official cooled rate-hike fears and dragged the dollar lower.

The dollar’s retreat turbocharged a rally in the yen, ‌which has gained 2.6% this week to trade at 155.7 a dollar, putting it within striking distance of the 155.2 level reached after joint intervention by Tokyo and Washington in late July.

In remarks at a Reuters NEXT Newsmaker event, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said that recent data suggested some signs of disinflation and that, if upcoming reports reinforced that trend, he would favour holding rates steady ​at this month’s policy meeting.

Futures were quick to scale back the chance of a rate hike this month to just 50%, from about 63% a ​day ago. Those expectations had surged in recent sessions as a global bond rout drove long-dated yields to multi-year highs, fuelled ⁠by concerns over stubborn inflation, swelling government debt and geopolitical tensions.

In Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 1%, tracking broad gains on Wall Street, but that was not enough to offset earlier losses, with the index still down 0.4% for the week.

Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.8% but was down ​2.7% this week. Chinese blue-chips rallied 1%, and South Korea’s KOSPI increased 1.1%.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee extended its marginal gains against the US dollar on Friday. The local unit closed the day at 277.41, a gain of Re0.01 against the greenback.

Volume on the all-share index increased to 874.32 million from 627.45 million recorded in the previous close.

The value of shares rose to Rs32.42 billion from Rs25.19 billion in the previous session.

Cnergyico PK was the volume leader with 149.30 million shares, followed by Tasdeeq Information with 132.41 million shares, and WorldCall Telecom with 78.72 million shares.

Shares of 496 companies were traded on Friday, of which 235 registered an increase, 218 recorded a fall, and 43 remained unchanged.