Business Recorder
Selling continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding over 800 points during the opening minutes of trading on Friday. At 10am, the benchmark index was hovering at 165,641.89, down by 856.94 points or 0.51%. Selling was observed in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies and power generation. Index-heavy stocks, including HUBCO, OGDC, PPL, PSO, HBL, MEBL, NBP and UBL, traded in the red. In a key development, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has slapped 11 new Structural Benchmarks (SBs) on Pakistan including parliamentary approval of a fiscal year 2027 budget in line with IMF staff agreement to meet programme targets, notification of the semi-annual gas tariff adjustment, the annual power tariff adjustment and enhancing NAB’s autonomy and transparency by submitting to parliament amendments to the NAB ordinance to establish an open, merit-based, rigorous and competitive selection process of senior management. On Thursday, PSX extended its losing streak as investor sentiment remained fragile amid persistent uncertainty surrounding US-Iran developments and elevated international oil prices, triggering another volatile trading session dominated by selling in index-heavy stocks. The benchmark KSE-100 Index closed lower by 952.30 points or 0.57% to settle at 166,498.84 points. Globally, Asian shares came under pressure on Friday as investor euphoria over tech stocks gave way to inflation fears, with Treasury yields spiking to one-year highs and rising bets on a US rate hike this year. Oil prices kept climbing amid a lack of progress toward opening the Strait of Hormuz, and as US President Donald Trump said China wanted to buy US oil. All eyes are on Beijing, where Trump is set to wrap up his two-day state visit on Friday. Trump’s entourage includes Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Jensen Huang, chief executive of chipmaker Nvidia. NVIDIA surged 4.4% overnight after the US cleared the sales of the company’s H200 chips to Chinese firms, lifting the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to new record highs. The euphoria, however, failed to spread to Asia. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.2% on Friday, more than wiping out this week’s gain so far. Japan’s Nikkei also dropped 1.2% as data showed the country’s wholesale inflation accelerated to 4.9% in April, the fastest pace in three years, leaving the Bank of Japan on track to raise interest rates. This is an intraday update
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