PSX: selling returns at bourse, KSE-100 down over 200 points
- Benchmark index was hovering at 166,957.17
Pakistan Stock Exchange saw selling pressure, with the KSE-100 down, amidst inflation projections and a global tech market slump driven by AI spending concerns.
- Selling pressure at the Pakistan Stock Exchange.
- Pakistan's projected inflation range for October 2026.
- Global tech shares slump due to AI spending and earnings.
Selling was observed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing over 200 points during the opening minutes of trading on Friday.
At 9:50am, the benchmark index was hovering at 166,957.17, down 236.26 points or 0.14%.
Selling was observed in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies and OMCs. Index-heavy stocks, including HUBCO, MARI, PPL, MCB, MEBL, NBP and UBL, traded in the red.
Pakistan’s finance ministry projected inflation in the range of 9.5% to 10.5% for the outgoing month of October 2026 amid elevated energy and food prices in the country, in line with global trends.
On Thursday, PSX extended its recovery as optimism over potential Middle East peace talks supported buying, despite continued uncertainty after an Iranian official reportedly rejected a proposed deal to end the US-Israel war. The KSE-100 Index advanced by 1,456.68 points, or 0.88%, to close at 167,193.44 points.
Internationally, tech shares slumped in Asia on Friday, the yen rose, and bonds surged toward their biggest monthly gain in nearly three years as investors scurried to safety against worries that huge and rising AI spending may not deliver sufficient returns.
Shares in Google parent Alphabet fell 12.6% on Wall Street and slid a little further after hours, to wipe out a withering $500 billion in market value, as massive AI spending turned the company’s cash flow negative.
An aftermarket plunge of 23% in Intel shares and a drop of 7% in Amazon stocks, as they too burn through cash, drove Nasdaq 100 futures down 1.4% and sent stocks of chipmakers around Asia into a tailspin.
Nerves were also frayed by a potentially record-breaking hack at Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, which drove down bitcoin, other cryptocurrency prices and stocks including rival exchange Coinbase.
South Korea’s KOSPI slumped 5% for an October fall of more than 17%. Japan’s Nikkei fell 3%.
In China, the blue chip CSI300 headed for its largest monthly fall in a decade, after nearly four months of AI stocks tanking on fears that a slowdown in demand for chips and other data centre equipment could crush revenues.
This is an intraday update