After hitting a record high in the previous session, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Index witnessed a bearish session on Thursday, losing 620 points on profit-taking to close below 86,000.
The KSE-100 started the session positive, hitting an intra-day high of 86,520.29.
However, the bears soon dominated the market, pushing a selling spree to continue till end of the session.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 85,585.43, down by 620.23 points or 0.72%.
“Profit-taking was observed today at the bourse after index soared to close at an all-time of high 86,205 points as of yesterday’s close,” brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post-market report.
It added that profit taking was largely led by banking and E&P sector as they lost value to weigh down on the index by -348 points.
“PRL was today’s volume leader with 58 million shares, which can be attributed to news that Chinese investment corporation has agreed to provide $1bn to company for its upgradation project,” Topline said.
On Wednesday, the KSE-100 closed above 86,000 for the first time in history amid investor optimism related to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit held in Islamabad.
In a key development, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb told US Ambassador Donald Blome on Thursday that the government’s macroeconomic reforms were a “work in progress.”
According to a statement released by the Finance Division, Aurangzeb made these remarks during a meeting with the US envoy, who called on him at the Finance Division.
Matters of mutual interest and bilateral cooperation were discussed, read the statement.
The improvement in Pakistan’s macroeconomic conditions in FY24 was expected to maintain momentum in FY25 as well, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said, predicting real GDP growth of 2.5 – 3.5% for fiscal 2025, lower than the government targeted 3.6%.
Bank Alfalah saw its consolidated profit jump to Rs13.3 billion during the quarter ended September 30, 2024, over 50% higher than its earnings in the same period of the previous year.
The increase in profit-after-tax (PAT) was attributed to much higher non-markup income amid a jump in commission income and massive gains on securities.
Mega Motor Company (Private) Limited, a subsidiary of The Hub Power Company Limited (HUBCO), announced a significant partnership with BYD Auto Industry Company Limited, the world’s leading new energy vehicle (NEV) manufacturer.
The development was shared by HUBCO in a notice to the PSX.
Meanwhile, foreign exchange reserves held by the SBP increased by $215 million on a weekly basis, clocking in at $11.02 billion to hit 2.5-year high as of October 11, 2024, data released on Thursday showed.
Total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $16.11 billion. Net foreign reserves held by commercial banks stood at $5.09 billion.
Globally, Asian shares steadied on Thursday ahead of a housing policy briefing in China that has raised expectations of support for the ailing property sector, while the dollar stood near 2-1/2 month highs on the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency.
Global bonds rallied after a surprisingly large drop in British inflation and as the European Central Bank is expected to announce its first back-to-back rate cut in 13 years.
Results at chipmaking giant TSMC will be in focus after a soft outlook from equipment supplier ASML.
Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.2% in early trade and Australian shares rose 1% to hit a record high, led by the banking sector which had also performed strongly on Wall Street.
The Pakistani rupee recorded a marginal improvement against the US dollar, appreciating 0.02% in the inter-bank market on Thursday. At close, the currency settled at 277.79, a gain of Re0.05 against the greenback.
Volume on the all-share index increased to 513.29 million from 474.33 million on Wednesday.
However, the value of shares declined to Rs21.61 billion from Rs26.94 billion in the previous session.
Pak RefineryXD was the volume leader with 57.83 million shares, followed by Fauji Foods Ltd with 57.33 million shares, and The Searle Company with 30.39 million shares.
Shares of 450 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 173 registered an increase, 208 recorded a fall, while 69 remained unchanged.
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