Buying returned at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) after a day of massive selling pressure, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining nearly 1,600 points during the opening minutes of trading on Friday.
At 9:20am, the benchmark index was hovering at 183,916.88, an increase of 1,578.76 points or 0.87%.
Buying interest was observed in key sectors, including commercial banks, cement, fertilizer, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refinery. Index-heavy stocks, including ARL, HUBCO, MARI, OGDC, POL, PPL, PSO, SSGC, SNGPL, MCB, MEBL, NBP and UBL, traded in the green.
On Thursday, PSX suffered a steep and broad-based sell-off as intense selling pressure across heavyweight stocks pushed benchmark indices sharply lower and erased recent gains.
Investor sentiment deteriorated rapidly amid disappointment over key corporate earnings, unwinding of speculative positions and widespread profit-taking.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 6,042.27 points, or 3.21%, to close at 182,338.12 points.
Internationally, stocks were volatile in early Asian trading on Friday after US President Donald Trump endorsed a bipartisan deal to avert a fresh government shutdown and said he has decided who he will nominate to lead the Federal Reserve.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fluctuated between gains and losses and was recently down 0.2%, extending the previous day’s declines as it headed for its best monthly performance in more than three years.
S&P 500 e-mini futures slid 0.4%, and Nasdaq e-mini futures were off 0.5%, while precious metals were choppy after a flash crash.
On Thursday, Wall Street stocks fell after lacklustre earnings from Microsoft raised fears about whether its bets on artificial intelligence would pay off. The S&P 500 closed down 0.1%, and the Nasdaq Composite tumbled 0.7%.
With just under a third of S&P 500 companies having reported, 76% of companies have beaten earnings estimates. But earnings season has thus far been a mixed bag for the major U.S. tech firms that dominate the index.
This is an intra-day update
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