KARACHI:
The Pakistan Inventory Change (PSX) remained beneath stress on Thursday as consolidation in equities stretched right into a sixth consecutive session, with the benchmark KSE-100 index closing decrease amid risky buying and selling and weak market breadth.
The index settled barely above 181,450, down about 1,110 factors, after swinging sharply between the intra-day excessive of 183,718 and low of 180,784. “Market momentum stayed muted as rising geopolitical tensions forged a protracted shadow over investor sentiment,” famous Ali Najib, Deputy Head of Buying and selling at Arif Habib Ltd (AHL). “Escalating uncertainty within the Center East stored contributors on the sidelines, prompting a cautious, wait-and-see method and limiting danger urge for food regardless of the underlying market resilience.”
AHL famous that consolidation on the PSX prolonged right into a sixth consecutive session, with the benchmark index sliding 0.61% as market breadth remained weak. Of the traded shares, solely 28 closed within the inexperienced whereas 71 remained decrease, reflecting sustained promoting stress.
Index beneficial properties had been supported primarily by choose vitality and industrial names, with OGDC rising 1.63%, Pakistan Petroleum gaining 1.92% and Atlas Honda surging 7.03%. Nevertheless, these advances had been greater than offset by losses in heavyweight shares as UBL fell 1.2%, Engro Holdings declined 1.78% and Methods Ltd dropped 2.34%.
On the macro and geopolitical fronts, the sentiment was influenced by feedback from Turkish international minister, who acknowledged that Turkiye was in talks to hitch a regional defence pact involving Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Individually, in a transfer aimed toward strengthening Pakistan’s digital finance ecosystem, the federal government signed a memorandum of understanding with World Liberty Monetary to discover the usage of the corporate’s $1 stablecoin for cross-border funds.
Heading into the ultimate session of the week, the KSE-100 is down 1.6% week-on-week, with analysts cautioning that draw back danger stays, together with the potential of a stop-loss-driven transfer in direction of 180,000 earlier than any significant reversal to the upside, AHL stated.
Topline’s market overview highlighted that the KSE-100 index ended the session within the pink, settling at 181,456, down 1,113 factors. Buying and selling remained risky all through the day, with the index touching the intra-day excessive of 183,718 and sliding to the low of 180,784.
Choose index heavyweights – OGDC, PPL and Atlas Honda – supplied notable help, collectively including 266 factors to the benchmark. Nevertheless, losses in UBL, Engro Holdings, Methods Ltd, MCB and Engro Fertilisers overshadowed these beneficial properties, collectively dragging the index down by 622 factors, stated Topline.
Muhammad Hasan Ather of JS World talked about that the KSE-100 index endured a risky session, closing down by 0.6%. Regardless of an early intra-day rally, the market succumbed to renewed promoting stress amid profit-taking. The bearish sentiment was primarily triggered by heightened geopolitical tensions within the Center East and issues over a possible reacceleration of inflation resulting from rising vitality prices and exterior sector imbalances. Whereas the present volatility persists, the long-term outlook stays cautiously optimistic, he stated.
General buying and selling volumes had been recorded at 820 million shares in contrast with the earlier tally of 1.03 billion. The worth of traded shares stood at Rs46 billion.
Shares of 482 firms had been traded. Of those, 150 shares closed larger, 289 fell and 43 remained unchanged.
Hascol Petroleum was the amount chief with buying and selling in 62.7 million shares, gaining Rs1.09 to shut at Rs20.64. International traders bought shares value Rs707 million.
