The KSE-100 saw wild swings on Friday, crossing the 80,000 barrier with an over 1,250-point gain in the morning before massive profit-taking and resistance saw it plummet to 78,300 in the second half of the session.
Trading began with a bullish momentum carried over from the previous few sessions, taking the benchmark index to an intra-day high of 80,059.87 – the highest in history.
However, some profit-taking erased the intra-day gains by the end of the first half of the session.
The second half began with further selling as the index fell 456.58 points, followed by some late-session buying.
However, some support helped the benchmark index settle at 78,810.49, up by 8.96 points or 0.01%, by close.
Earlier, selling was seen in key sectors including automobile assemblers, chemical, cement, commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies and OMCs.
The market had been bullish since the budget erased fears that the capital markets would see higher taxation, propelling the index to its all-time highs. As Pakistan nears a bailout agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), experts see the buying trend to continue with some consolidation and intermittent profit-taking.
“Positive sentiments have been led by a tax-laden budget, which investors feel will help in getting the IMF long-term loan,” said Mohammed Sohail, CEO Topline Securities, earlier during the trading session.
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On Thursday, the banking sector witnessed heavy buying interest as the benchmark KSE-100 Index gained nearly 2,100 points to settle at then new record high of 78,802 during the first trading session post-Eid holidays.
Globally, India’s benchmark Nifty 50 index hit a record high on Friday, boosted by information technology stocks after Accenture’s upbeat annual revenue forecast.
The NSE Nifty 50 was up 0.25% at 23,627.10 as of 9:19 a.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex added 0.23% to 77,650.48.
IT stocks, which have the second-heaviest weightage on the Nifty, jumped 2% after the US-based sector bellwether forecast full-year revenue growth above expectations.
The results give Indian IT firms cues about demand in the key US market, where clients have curbed spending due to high interest rates.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee registered a marginal gain against the US dollar, appreciating 0.03% in the inter-bank market on Friday. At close, the local unit settled at 278.51, a gain of Re0.09 against the greenback.
Volume on the all-share index increased to 471.34 million from 452.63 million a session ago.
The value of shares marginally declined to Rs20.47 billion from Rs20.67 billion in the previous session.
WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 43.05 million shares, followed by Hum Network with 41.93 million shares, and Pervez Ahmed Co with 37.35 million shares.
Shares of 437 companies were traded on Friday, of which 138 registered an increase, 237 recorded a fall, while 62 remained unchanged.
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