Buying rally continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 442 points on Friday.
The KSE-100 started the session positive, hitting an intra-day high of 115,730.98, following by some selling that pushed the index to an intra-day low of 115,162.69.
At close, aided by late-session buying, the benchmark index settled at 115,536.17, up by 441.93 points or 0.38.
“KSE-100 Index extended its gain as expectation that Pakistan will clear it first review of $7bn IMF EFF bailout programme continue to garner investor interest,” brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post-market report.
Top positive contribution to the index came from MARI, FFC, EFERT, SYS, AIRLINK and PAEL, as they cumulatively contributed +426 points to the index, it added.
The KSE-100 increased 1% on week-on-week basis.
“This gain can be accredited to debt rollover of $1bn by China and positive news flow from talks with IMF team for first review of $7bn EFF programme,” Topline said.
In a key development, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has collected Rs7,346 billion during the first eight months (July-February) 2024-25 against the target of Rs7,947 billion, reflecting a massive shortfall of Rs601 billion.
The FBR data revealed that the FBR had provisionally collected Rs850 billion during February 2025, against the target of Rs983 billion, reflecting a shortfall of Rs133 billion.
On Thursday, buying momentum was observed at the PSX, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index closing at 115,094.23 level amid an increase of 1,009.70 points.
Internationally, Asia shares rose on Friday and global markets attempted a rebound after a brutal selloff, while gold reached a record as an escalation of global trade tensions left investors nervous and sparked a flight to safe-haven assets.
Relief over the likely aversion of a US government shutdown boosted stocks in early Asian trade, after Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said he would vote to advance a Republican stopgap funding bill, signalling that his party would provide the necessary support.
US stock futures rose sharply in response, with the Nasdaq up 0.87% and S&P 500 futures advancing 0.7%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.2% higher, though was on track to lose more than 2% for the week, as global trade disputes battered global stocks.
In the latest in a long list of tariff threats, US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would hit imports of European wine and spirits with duties of 200% if the EU did not remove retaliatory surcharges on American whiskey and other products that come into effect next month.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee saw marginal decline against the US dollar, depreciating 0.06% in the inter-bank market on Friday. At close, the currency settled at 280.21, a loss of Re0.16 against the greenback.
Volume on the all-share index decreased to 360.46 million from 382.79 million recorded in the previous close.
Whereas, the value of shares declined to Rs21.04 billion from Rs25.41 billion in the previous session.
Pak Int.Bulk was the volume leader with 42.70 million shares, followed by B.O.Punjab with 36.14 million shares, and Fauji Cement with 25.62 million shares.
Shares of 435 companies were traded on Friday, of which 195 registered an increase, 169 recorded a fall, while 71 remained unchanged.
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