PSX: selling at bourse, KSE-100 down 1,200 points
- Benchmark index was hovering at 177,871.25
Pakistan Stock Exchange's KSE-100 Index surged nearly 900 points due to broad buying across key sectors. Globally, markets were mixed, with Nvidia shares dropping on CEO ousting rumors.
- KSE-100 Index surge and active buying in key sectors.
- Nvidia's stock plunge amid CEO ousting allegations.
- Global stock market performance in Asia and Wall Street.
- US Federal Reserve's anticipated interest rate hike.
After opening on a positive note, selling pressure returned at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding over 1,200 points during the trading session on Thursday.
At 12:50pm, the benchmark index was hovering at 177,871.25, up 1,212.55 points or 0.68%.
Selling was observed in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and power generation. Index-heavy stocks, including HUBCO, PPL, OGDC, PSO, SSGC, SNGPL, HBL, MCB, MEBL and UBL, traded in the red.
On Wednesday, PSX closed marginally lower as late-session profit-taking pared gains. The benchmark KSE-100 Index shed 251.44 points, or 0.14%, to close at 179,083.80 points.
Internationally, global stocks wobbled at the start of Asian trading on Thursday, while Nvidia shares plunged in after-hours trading on news that its board may oust longtime CEO Jensen Huang.
Nvidia’s board is meeting late Wednesday to decide whether to oust Huang, a source familiar with the matter said, as the world’s dominant supplier of AI processors grapples with the fallout of allegations that he had an affair with a suspected spy for China.
The New York Times has also reported that Huang had had an affair with a company executive who reported to him.
Shares in Nvidia slid more than 8% after the bell, weighing on S&P 500 e-mini futures, which slipped 0.4%.
Regional indexes fared better after a choppy start. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.2%, Taiwanese shares gained 0.5%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 0.5%, and MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.1% lower, weighed down by shares in Hong Kong.
Stocks on Wall Street made gains on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 rising 1.3% and coming close to retracing all of the losses since last week’s US midterm elections.
Fed funds futures are pricing an 87.3% chance of a 25-basis-point hike at the US central bank’s next two-day meeting on December 9, compared to a 12.7% chance of a larger 50-basis-point hike, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
This is an intraday update