The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a volatile trading session on Friday, as the benchmark KSE-100 Index surged to a record intra-day high of 120,796.67 before closing marginally lower due to selling pressure.
Despite a strong start, the index reversed its gains in the latter half of the session, touching an intra-day low of 118,718.26 before settling at 118,791.66, down 146.45 points or 0.12%. The pullback came as investors opted to book profits following the recent rally driven by the government’s electricity tariff cuts and promises to resolve the circular debt crisis.
The trading session initially saw strong buying interest in key sectors, including cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration, OMCs, and refineries. Index-heavy stocks such as ARL, NRL, MARI, PPL, DGKC, HBL, MCB, MEBL, NBP, and UBL remained in the green for most of the day before some succumbed to selling pressure.
The market’s rally had been fuelled by the government’s announcement on Thursday to lower electricity tariffs, with residential consumers benefiting from a Rs7.41 per unit reduction and industrial consumers seeing a cut of Rs7.69 per unit. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif welcomed the PSX’s bullish trend, attributing it to growing investor confidence in the government’s economic policies. However, he acknowledged the challenges in securing the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) approval for these reductions.
Global market turmoil added to the uncertainty, with stocks tumbling worldwide amid escalating trade tensions between the U.S. and China. The S&P 500 dropped over 4%, while the Nasdaq shed more than 5% as new tariffs from both sides heightened fears of a global economic slowdown. Tech giants including Apple, Amazon, and Nvidia faced heavy losses as investors shifted towards safe-haven assets. The impact of this downturn trickled down to emerging markets, raising concerns about the sustainability of PSX’s recent gains.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee posted a slight gain, appreciating 0.03% to settle at 280.47 against the US dollar in the inter-bank market. Trading volume on the all-share index rose to 553.67 million shares from the previous session’s 422.70 million, with the value of shares traded increasing to Rs35.49 billion. Cnergyico PK led the volume chart with 61.33 million shares exchanged, followed by Bank Alfalah with 43.52 million shares and B.O. PunjabXD with 21.77 million shares. Of the 457 companies traded, 151 advanced, 258 declined, and 48 remained unchanged.
While the PSX’s strong run signals investor optimism, the late-session sell-off underscores underlying caution as global market headwinds and local economic challenges persist.
