The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) saw a volatile session on Tuesday, as the benchmark KSE-100 Index swayed in both directions before closing the day marginally lower by 179 points.
A topsy-turvy trading was observed throughout the trading session, with the KSE-100 hitting an intra-day high of 114,486.20 and an intra-day low of 113,610.31.
At close, the KSE-100 settled at 114,177.65, a decrease of 178.69 points or 0.16%.
“The KSE-100 witnessed a fierce tug-of-war between bulls and bears in today’s session. The market opened on a negative note, reacting sharply to the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) decision to maintain the policy rate at 12%, despite a significant decline in inflation,” brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post market report.
“However, the second half of the session saw a resurgence of buying interest. Market participants responded positively to speculation regarding the possible clearance of the longstanding circular debt,” it added.
The positive movement was primarily fueled by PSO, PPL, OGDC, MEBL, and HUBC, which together contributed 425 points to the index. Conversely, UBL, SRVI, FFC and EFERT weighed on the market, pulling the index down by 210 points, according to the report.
Contrary to expectations, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday kept its policy rate unchanged, for the first time since June 2024, citing risks primarily from volatility in food prices and global protectionist policies.
Most of the market experts had expected the central bank to continue its monetary easing stance as a declining inflation rate has driven expectations of a seventh-successive cut.
In another key development, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission and Pakistani authorities on Monday held discussions on agricultural income tax.
Sources in the Finance Ministry revealed that the Fund mission held a special session with provincial governments, Ministry of Finance and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) officials on agriculture income tax.
On Monday, PSX witnessed a volatile session, as the KSE-100 ended the day on a flat note amid last-hour profit-taking, settling at 114,356.34.
Globally, Asian stocks took their cue from Wall Street and fell sharply on Tuesday as worries mounted that a wide-ranging trade war could dent US economic growth and result in a recession, leading skittish investors to the safe-haven Japanese yen.
Investor concerns about the potential economic slowdown were exacerbated after President Donald Trump in a Fox News interview talked about a “period of transition” while declining to predict whether his tariffs would result in a US recession.
Those comments and worries sapped risk sentiment, sending stocks sliding and weighing on the U.S. dollar and Treasury yields.
The S&P 500 fell 2.7% on Monday, its biggest one-day drop this year, while the Nasdaq slid 4.0%, its biggest single-day percentage drop since September 2022. S&P and Nasdaq futures slid 1% in Asian hours on Tuesday.
In Asia, it was a sea of red with Japan’s Nikkei and Taiwan stocks sliding about 3%, hitting their lowest level since September. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell more than 1%.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee recorded marginal improvement against the US dollar, appreciating 0.04% in the inter-bank market on Tuesday. At close, the currency settled at 279.95, a gain of Re0.12 against the greenback.
Volume on the all-share index decreased to 318.52 million from 324.65 million recorded in the previous close.
However, the value of shares increased to Rs22.88 billion from Rs20.70 billion in the previous session.
Sui South Gas was the volume leader with 26.38 million shares, followed by B.O.Punjab with 22.12 million shares, and WorldCall Telecom with 18.12 million shares.
Shares of 438 companies were traded on Tuesday, of which 132 registered an increase, 233 recorded a fall, while 73 remained unchanged.
