The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed heavy selling pressure, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index closing lower by nearly 2% on Friday.
The bears maintained their grip over the market for most part of the day, pushing the index to an intra-day low of 183,547.29.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 184,129.58, down by 3,702.50 points or 1.97%.
“This pressure in market can be accredited to Barrick Mining Corporation statement that Reko Diq copper-gold project site in 4Q is in advance works, although in light of a recent increase in security incidents management is currently reviewing all aspects of the project.
“In light of the aforementioned news index heavy weights – OGDC & PPL lost value to close down by 2.3% and 5% respectively and cumulatively contributed negative 489 points to the index,” brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post-market report.
“NBP PA by in the banking sector lost value (closed down by -8% on DoD basis) to weighed down on the index by 406 points, as upcoming court hearing related to pension case on February 13 affected investor sentiment negatively,” it added.
Traded value wise NBP, PPL, KEL, OGDC, and BOP, dominated the trading activity, Topline said.
The PSX remained closed on Thursday in observance of the Kashmir Day holiday.
On Wednesday, buying had continued for the fourth consecutive session, with the KSE-100 closing higher by 931 points.
K-Electric (KE) Chief Executive Officer Moonis Alvi has resigned from his position, the utility announced in a notice to the PSX. The development came days after Governor Sindh Kamran Tessori had annulled a Provincial Ombudsman’s order to remove Alvi from his post over alleged involvement in a case pertaining to workplace harassment.
Global equities extended losses into a third day on Friday as a sell-off on Wall Street intensified, with precious metals and cryptocurrencies gripped by wrenching volatility.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan tumbled 1% to mark a second day of losses, led by a 5% dive for South Korea’s Kospi which triggered a brief trading halt shortly after the open. S&P 500 e-mini futures slid 0.2% and Nasdaq e-mini futures fell 0.4%.
Stocks sold off overnight on fears that new AI models may start to eat into the profits of software firms, with the S&P 500 turning negative for the year as fears around the labour market grew.
Layoffs announced by US employers surged in January to the highest level for the month in 17 years, a survey from global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed on Thursday.
Precious metals rallied off their lows but were still down for the day, with gold falling 0.1% at $4,764.43 and silver plunging as much as 10% before recovering. The white metal was last down 1.4% at $70.26.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee posted marginal gain against the US dollar in the inter-bank market on Friday. At close, the local currency settled at 279.71, a gain of Re0.01 against the greenback.
Volume on the all-share index increased to 1,272.64 million from 1,195.26 million recorded in the previous close. The value of shares rose to Rs60.36 billion from Rs44.10 billion in the previous session.
K-Electric Ltd was the volume leader with 517.81 million shares, followed by National BankXD with 51.24 million shares, and F. Nat.Equities with 50.26 million shares.
Shares of 480 companies were traded on Friday, of which 113 registered an increase, 323 recorded a fall, and 44 remained unchanged.
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