Buying rally continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index closing the day with a gain of 720 points.
The bulls largely maintained their grip over the market, hitting the index to an intra-day high of 119,913.88.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 119,691.09, up by 719.69 points or 0.60%.
Top positive contributions to the index came from FFC, MEBL, HUBC, PKGP, ENGROH and MCB, as they cumulatively contributed 668 points to the index, brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post-market report.
The KSE 100 Index gained 7.5% on month-on-month (MoM) basis.
“This gain can be attributed to cut in policy rate by 100bps by SBP to 11% in its monetary policy meeting – citing improvement in inflation outlook relative to the previous assessments and approval of first review of EFF by IMF board along with a new facility under Resilience and Sustainability Facility of US$1.4 billion,” Topline said.
On Thursday, the PSX closed in the green zone, as investors remained strong due to various domestic and international reasons. The KSE-100 Index gained 638.50 points or 0.54% to settle at 118,971.40 points.
Internationally, stocks slipped in Asia on Friday, and the US dollar dropped with Treasury yields as investors digested an appeals court’s decision to keep President Donald Trump’s tariffs in effect, a day after markets rallied on a separate ruling blocking most of them.
Japan’s Nikkei saw the most pronounced selling, after experiencing the most pronounced buying on Thursday, with moves in the exporter-heavy index exacerbated by the ebb and flow in demand for the safe-haven yen.
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The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington temporarily reinstated Trump’s duties on Thursday while it considers the government’s appeal.
The Nikkei dropped 1.7% in the Asian morning, putting it basically back at Wednesday’s closing level.
The yen strengthened about 2% from its low on Thursday to last change hands at around 143.48 per US dollar.
A stronger yen reduces the value of overseas revenues.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng sank 1.4% and mainland China’s blue chip index eased 0.3% in early trading.
South Korea’s KOSPI fell 0.5%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was off 0.4%.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee registered marginal gain against the US dollar, appreciating 0.02% in the inter-bank market on Friday. At close, the local currency settled at 282.02, a gain of Re0.05 against the greenback.
Volume on the all-share index decreased to 580.32 million from 741.65 million recorded in the previous close.
The value of shares declined to Rs22.74 billion from Rs23.91 billion in the previous session.
WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 79.67 million shares, followed by K-Electric Ltd with 47.70 million shares, and Cnergyico PK with 35.76 million shares.
Shares of 474 companies were traded on Friday, of which 259 registered an increase, 161 recorded a fall, while 54 remained unchanged.
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