Positive momentum at PSX, KSE-100 gains over 500 points

Positive sentiments returned to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining over 500 points during the opening hours of trading on Friday.

At 10:20am, the benchmark index was hovering at 147,861.38, an increase of 517.88 points or 0.35%.

Buying was observed in key sectors including cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refinery. Index-heavy stocks, including ARL, NRL, HUBCO, MARI, POL, PPL, SSGC, HBL, MCB and NBP, traded in the green.

On Thursday, the PSX benchmark KSE-100 Index ended the session in negative territory, weighed down by persistent pressure from futures rollover activities. The KSE-100 Index closed at 147,343.50 points, down 150.52 points or 0.10%.

Internationally, Asian stocks edged higher on Friday, riding a tech-driven rally on Wall Street, with investor focus now turning to a key US inflation reading due later in the day for further clues on the Federal Reserve’s rate outlook.

The results from artificial intelligence heavyweight Nvidia this week, which fell short of investors’ lofty expectations, still confirmed that AI infrastructure spending remains strong, helping lift the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average to record high closes overnight.

Markets in Asia latched on to the positive momentum on Friday as MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.4%, though European and US stock futures slipped.

EUROSTOXX 50 futures fell 0.2% while FTSE futures eased 0.08%. S&P 500 futures dipped 0.08% and Nasdaq futures lost 0.15%.

In China, the tech-focused STAR 50 Index slid 2.5% after a jump of more than 7% in the previous session.

Shares of Chinese chip firm Cambricon Technologies tumbled more than 5% after the company on Thursday issued a risk alert to investors in a stock exchange filing, citing a sharp rise in its stock prices since late July.

Still, the CSI300 blue-chip index was up 0.7% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.5%. Japan’s Nikkei slipped 0.4%.

This is an intra-day update