Massive buying was witnessed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 gaining nearly 1,700 points during the first half of the trading session on Friday.
At 12pm, the benchmark index was hovering at 114,865.61, an increase of 1,659.21 points or 1.47%.
Buying activity was observed in key sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, fertilizer, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refineries.
Index-heavy stocks NRL, HUBCO, PSO, SHEL, MARI, OGDC, PPL, MCB, MEBL and NBP traded in the green.
On Thursday, buying returned to the PSX after three negative sessions as its benchmark KSE-100 Index closed the day with a gain of over 1,700 points at 113,206.40.
“We expect the index to display range-bound activity today following yesterday’s strong rally,” said Intermarket Securities.
Internationally, Asian shares wavered on Friday, weighed down by the return of tech-heavy South Korean stocks from holidays, but relatively strong earnings from U.S. tech giants kept risk sentiment intact. At the same time, tariff threats pushed the dollar and gold prices higher.
Investors were also weighing central bank actions this week in which the Federal Reserve held rates steady on Wednesday, in line with expectations, with Fed Chair Jerome Powell saying there would be no rush to cut them again.
The European Central Bank on the other hand cut interest rates on Thursday.
With markets in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan still closed for the Lunar New Year, the return of South Korea grabbed the spotlight in Asia.
The benchmark KOSPI slid 1%, after China’s DeepSeek unveiled earlier this week a breakthrough in cheap AI models that triggered a global market rout.
Shares of Samsung Electronics, which projected limited first-quarter earnings growth on Friday, fell 3%, while SK Hynix, a key supplier to Nvidia, slipped 8%.
That left the MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down 0.3% but still on course for a 1% gain this month, snapping its three-month losing streak.
Nasdaq futures rose 0.6% in Asian hours after Apple executives forecast relatively strong sales growth, a sign the company will recover from a dip in iPhone sales as it rolls out artificial intelligence features.
Technology stocks stumbled badly on Monday as investors factored in implications from the low-cost Chinese AI model, with shares of high-profile tech names such as Nvidia, Broadcom and Oracle getting pummelled.
But tech stocks have recouped some of those losses, with CEOs of Microsoft and Meta defending massive spending, saying it was crucial to staying competitive in the new field.
This is an intra-day update
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