After a positive opening, selling pressure returned to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding nearly 1,500 points during the intra-day trading on Thursday.
At 2:35pm, the benchmark index was hovering at 181,073.23, a decrease of 1,496.58 points or 0.82%.
Selling was observed in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refinery. Index-heavy stocks, including ARL, MARI, POL, SSGC, HBL, MCB, MEBL and UBL, traded in the red.
The Government of Pakistan and SC Financial Technologies LLC, an affiliate of World Liberty Financial USA (WLF), on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to foster collaboration on next-generation digital payment systems and cross-border financial innovations.
WLF is the main crypto business of the family of US President Donald Trump.
On Wednesday, Pakistan’s equity market remained under pressure as persistent geopolitical uncertainty and cautious investor positioning kept benchmark indices in the red, extending the ongoing consolidation phase. The benchmark KSE-100 Index closed at 182,569.82 points, down 1,381.69 points, or 0.75%.
Internationally, oil prices retreated from multi-month highs on Thursday and safe-haven gold eased back from a record peak after US President Donald Trump calmed market anxiety about potential US military action against Iran.
A selloff in tech stocks extended into Asian trading, after further declines on Wall Street as investors rotated out of high-flying chip- and artificial intelligence-related names, looking for bargains in other parts of the market.
Trump said on Wednesday afternoon that he had been told that killings in Iran’s crackdown on nationwide protests were subsiding and he believed there was currently no plan for large-scale executions.
Stocks in Asia were mixed, but tech shares encountered more selling.
In Japan, the tech-heavy Nikkei eased 0.9% after hitting an all-time peak in the previous session, but the broader Topix extended its own record high on Thursday with a 0.4% advance.
Taiwan’s TAIEX sank 0.5%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.4%, with tech shares weighing.
Mainland Chinese blue chips were flat, while South Korea’s KOSPIadded 0.3% to a fresh record high.
S&P 500 E-mini futures were off 0.1%, after the cash index sank 0.5% overnight. The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite dropped 1%.
This is an intra-day update
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