KARACHI:
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) was trading lower at the Friday noon break as the benchmark KSE-100 index slipped 668.83 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 168,196.21, after an early slide that took the market as low as 166,141.
Trading was suspended under the exchange’s regular Friday schedule, which splits the session around Jummah prayers. The second session is due to reopen at 2:32pm and run until 4:30pm.
The index opened under pressure following Thursday’s sharp 3,078-point, 1.79 per cent fall to 168,865.04, when investors dumped stocks on a surge in global oil prices and renewed US-Iran tensions. That sell-off had already pushed the market below the psychologically important 170,000 level.
Read: PSX plunges over 3,000 points as oil surge sparks panic selling
On Friday morning, the KSE-100 briefly extended those losses, falling more than 2,700 points from the previous close before bargain-hunting lifted the gauge back toward 168,200. The session high was a modest 168,240.89. By the prayer break, about 137.7 million shares had changed hands, with a traded value of Rs9.77 billion.
Broader gauges were also in the red. The KSE All-Share index was down 382 points, or 0.37 per cent, at 101,912.80, while the KSE-30 shed 161 points. The KMI-30 Islamic index lost 509 points. Oil and gas stocks provided a rare pocket of support, with the OGTI up 0.45 per cent.
Investors remain focused on geopolitical risk and the inflationary impact of higher crude prices after Thursday’s rout, which cut market capitalisation by hundreds of billions of rupees. Analysts said the afternoon session would test whether the midday rebound holds or whether selling resumes once the market reopens after prayers.
