The KSE-100 Index was able to recover around a 1,300-point loss it had suffered after the Supreme Court’s verdict on reserved seats as the index closed the session nearly flat on Friday.
The benchmark index started the session positive, hitting an intra-day high of 80,321.69 in the opening few hours.
However, the index saw strong selling pressure after the SC announced its verdict on the reserved seats, followed by a late-session buying spree that helped the KSE-100 finish about where it had started.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 79,944.10, marginally down by 48.26 points or 0.06%.
“Volatile session was observed today, where the index at one point declined by 1,380 or -1.73% after Supreme Court decision announced its verdict in reserved seats case in favor of PTI,” brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post-market report.
“However, recovery was observed during the latter hours of trade as investors factored in that PML-N ruling collation still has 62% representation in National Assembly,” it added.
Major positive contribution to the index came from HUBC, OGDC, FFC, PSO and BAHL, as they cumulatively contributed 384 points; whereas HBL, FFBL, EFERT, SRVI and BAFL lost value to weigh down on the index by 415 points, Topline said.
On week-on-week basis, KSE-100 declined slightly by 0.34%.
“This decline can be attributed to profit taking around the psychological 80,000 index level as investors await the $6-billion EFF deal with the IMF,” the brokerage house added.
The negative sentiment on Friday had come after the SC declared on former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party eligible for seats reserved for women and minorities, throwing a spanner in the working of the current National Assembly where the PML-N-led coalition government had a two-thirds majority.
With some seats now going away, the coalition government’s grip in workings of the federal government is likely to loosen. This stoked fear that the economic agenda could be put on the backburner, and possibly also slow down the reforms’ process.
However, some analysts said it was too early to tell the future course of reforms and the IMF programme.
On Thursday, the PSX had also witnessed a volatile session as its benchmark KSE-100 Index swayed in both directions before closing the day with a gain of 151 points to settle at 79,992.35.
In a key development, the IMF on Thursday said that it would continue to discuss policy goals and actions that could form the basis of a medium-term home-grown reform programme for Pakistan that could be supported under Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement with the IMF.
Globally, China stocks fell on Friday in line with broader weakness across other Asian markets, with mixed trade data weighing on sentiment, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street, while Hong Kong shares rose.
China’s exports rose 8.6% in June from a year earlier, stronger than the expected 8.0% growth, while imports unexpectedly shrank 2.3%, customs data showed on Friday, suggesting manufacturers are front-loading orders in anticipation of tariffs from a growing number of trade partners.
Around the region, MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index was down 0.17% while Japan’s Nikkei index was down 2.28%, tracking Wall Street losses overnight, after investors rotated into smaller companies following the cooler-than-expected US inflation print.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee registered some improvement, appreciating 0.08% against the US dollar in the inter-bank market on Friday. At close, the currency settled at 278.40, a gain of Re0.21 against the greenback.
Volume on the all-share index increased to 437.31 million from 389.02 million a session ago.
The value of shares rose to Rs23.48 billion from Rs20.92 billion in the previous session.
Fauji Fert Bin was the volume leader with 45.36 million shares, followed by K-Electric Ltd with 33.08 million shares, and WorldCall Telecom with 29.22 million shares.
Shares of 444 companies were traded on Friday, of which 155 registered an increase, 245 recorded a fall, while 44 remained unchanged.
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