After witnessing back-to-back positive sessions in the last two days, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) saw selling pressure on Wednesday, with its benchmark KSE-100 Index closing the day lower by 755 points.
The KSE-100 started the session positive, but soon the bears gained momentum. It faced range-bound mostly in the first session.
Buying returned in the second session, pushing the index to an intra-day high of 117,424.04, followed by late-selling that led the KSE-100 into the negative territory.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 116,020.11, down by 755.40 points or 0.65%.
“The volatility throughout the day can largely be attributed to the ongoing trade tensions between the United States and China, which have reignited concerns over global economic stability and impacted investor sentiment,” brokerage house Topline Securities said in a post-market report.
The market’s gains were primarily driven by strong performances from UBL, EFERT, MCB, LUCK, and CHCC, which collectively contributed 201 points to the index. On the flip side, major laggards included MARI, ENGROH, PPL, PSO, and BAHL, which together wiped out 441 points from the index, it added.
On Tuesday, the PSX continued its buying spree, with the KSE-100 closing the day higher by 385 points.
Despite a decline in global oil prices, the government has opted not to reduce local petroleum rates, announcing instead that the savings will be used to dualise a key highway in Balochistan, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s House (PMO) Tuesday.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced this in a federal cabinet meeting, the statement said.
“Addressing the participants of the meeting, the prime minister announced that instead of passing on the benefit of the recent decline in international petroleum prices to consumers, the saved amount would be utilised to dualise the vital N-25 Highway (Chaman–Quetta–Kalat–Khuzdar–Karachi Highway) in Balochistan,” it read.
Shares fell in Asia on Wednesday as AI darling Nvidia took a hit from U.S. curbs on chip sales to China, highlighting the damage to come in a tit-for-tat global trade war, while gold hit a record and the dollar stayed under pressure.
Data showed that China’s economy grew 5.4% in the first quarter from a year earlier, beating expectations, although trade tensions with the U.S. have clouded the outlook.
Overnight, President Donald Trump ordered a probe into potential new tariffs on all U.S. critical minerals imports, on top of reviews into pharmaceutical and chip imports. Beijing is continuing to play hardball, having reportedly ordered airlines to suspend deliveries of Boeing aircraft.
Treasury yields were steady ahead of a key speech from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell later in the day. Fed Governor Christopher Waller already sounded dovish and the expectation is Powell will echo the recent messages from his colleagues amid the tariff chaos.
S&P 500 futures fell 0.8% while Nasdaq futures slumped 1.4%. That was due to a 6% plunge in Nvidia shares in after-hours trading, which erased a total of $160 billion in its market cap.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee saw marginal improvement against the US dollar, appreciating 0.04% in the inter-bank market on Wednesday. At close, the currency settled at 280.46, a gain of Re0.11 against the US dollar.
Volume on the all-share index increased to 481.81 million from 479.46 million recorded in the previous close.
The value of shares rose to Rs38.54 billion from Rs30.45 billion in the previous session.
Cnergyico PK was the volume leader with 35.61 million shares, followed by B.O.Punjab with 25.48 million shares, and Fauji Foods Ltd with 25.27 million shares.
Shares of 451 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 140 registered an increase, 260 recorded a fall, while 51 remained unchanged.
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