Massive selling pressure was observed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding over 2,100 points during the opening minutes of trading.
At 10:05am, the benchmark index was hovering at 178,391.58, down 2,121.06 points or 1.18%.
Selling was observed in key sectors, including cement, commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and power generation. Index-heavy stocks, including OGDC, MARI, POL, PPL, HUBCO, ARL, MCB, MEBL and UBL, traded in the red.
The government is reportedly considering the imposition of a cess on fertiliser companies to recoup windfall profits, which will be ring-fenced for the benefit of farmers, well-informed sources told media.
On Thursday, the PSX remained under sustained selling pressure as heightened uncertainty, sector-wide weakness and negative sentiment surrounding large-scale mining investments triggered a sharp retreat across benchmark indices. The benchmark KSE-100 Index shed 2,537.16 points, or 1.39%, to settle at 180,512.65 points.
Globally, Asian shares retreated from record highs on Friday as worries about shrinking margins in the tech sector hit the likes of Apple, driving investors into safe-haven bonds ahead of key US inflation data.
On Wall Street overnight, the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite tumbled 2% after Cisco Systems posted quarterly adjusted gross margin below estimates amid surging memory chip costs. That drove its shares down 12% and wiped out about $40 billion of its market cap.
The selloff spilled over into tech giants like Apple, which tumbled 5% in the biggest daily drop since April last year, when US President Donald Trump’s sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs spooked markets. Transportation companies also got caught up in worries about AI disruption.
On Friday, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.6%, trimming this week’s gain to 4.1%. Japan’s Nikkei skidded 0.9%, but was still up 5.3% for the week.
Chinese blue chips dropped 0.6% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slid 1.5%.
Both Nasdaq futures and S&P 500 were up 0.1%, while EURO STOXX 50 futures climbed 0.2%.
This is an intra-day update
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