Buying returns to bourse, KSE-100 up nearly 140 points

Positive sentiments returned to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 index gaining nearly 140 points during trading on Thursday.

At 3:50pm, the benchmark index was hovering at 166,283.55 an increase of 138.21 points or 0.08 percent.

Across-the-board buying was observed in key sectors, including commercial banks, cement, fertilizer, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and power generation. Index-heavy stocks, including HUBCO, HBL, MEBL, NBP, MARI, OGDC and POL, traded in the green.

On Wednesday, PSX came under heavy pressure as a wave of institutional selling, triggered by renewed concerns over valuation fatigue and profit-taking after recent gains, pushed the market into a sharp, broad-based decline.

The KSE-100 Index settled at 166,145.35 — a steep fall of 1,496.93 points.

Internationally, the US dollar hit a five-week low while Asian stocks made a lacklustre start to the trading session on Thursday, after weaker-than-expected economic data cemented expectations the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its meeting next week.

The Nikkei 225 rose 0.8%, while MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was trading down 0.1%, weighed down by declines in Korea and New Zealand. S&P 500 e-mini futures were little changed, as momentum from US markets overnight petered out in Asia.

Wall Street’s main indexes closed higher on Wednesday, with the Dow adding almost nine-tenths of a percent.

The gains came after US private payrolls data posted their biggest drop in more than two-and-a-half years.

Meanwhile, a separate survey from the Institute for Supply Management showed its measure of services sector employment contracted in November, with the subindex of prices paid falling to a seven-month low.

This is an intraday update