Daily Times

The 100-index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) turned around to bullish trend on Tuesday, gaining 106.85 points, a positive change of 0.14 percent, closing at 77,191.34 points against 77,084.49 points on the last working day.

A total of 600,896,301 shares were traded during the day as compared to 501,191,841 shares the previous day, whereas the price of shares stood at Rs 17.127 billion against Rs 21.057 billion on the last trading day.

As many as 443 companies transacted their shares in the stock market, 206 of them recorded gains and 176 sustained losses, whereas the share price of 61 companies remained unchanged.

The three top trading companies were Kohinoor Spinning with 147,513,801 shares at Rs 6.10 per share, Yousuf Weabing with 53,670,089 shares at Rs 4.16 per share and Hascol Petrol with 41,384,191 shares at Rs 6.56 per share.

Nestle Pakistan Limited witnessed a maximum increase of Rs 148.69 per share price, closing at Rs 6,997.21, whereas the runner-up was Sapphire Fibres Limited with a Rs 109.60 rise in its per share price to Rs 1,589.70.

Unilever Pakistan Foods Limited witnessed a maximum decrease of Rs 165.50 per share closing at Rs 17,685.00 followed by JDW Sugar Mills Limited with a Rs 25.78 decline to close at Rs 485.47.

Separately, Asian equities rallied Tuesday after the previous day’s global rout fuelled by US recession fears that have led to calls for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates before its next meeting.

Tokyo, which suffered a record loss Monday, soared more than 10 percent at one point as traders rushed back to pick up beaten-down stocks caught up in a catastrophic day for markets in which trading boards were a sea of red.

Analysts warned that there would likely be more volatility to come.

The sell-off came on the back of data Friday revealing a surprisingly low number of US jobs were created last month, and another report showing continuing weakness in the manufacturing sector.

That led to warnings that the Fed had kept rates at more than two-decade highs for too long and was at risk of tipping the economy into recession.

Some analysts pointed to the “Sahm Rule,” which says an economy is in the early stages of recession if the three-month moving average of unemployment is 0.5 percentage points above its low over the previous 12 months. That was triggered by Friday’s data.

While Wall Street’s three main indexes suffered another day of pain — with the Nasdaq down more than three percent — a forecast-beating read on the key US services sector provided a little solace for investors.

Tokyo’s Nikkei, which tanked more than 12 percent Monday and suffered a record points loss, jumped around 10.5 percent in the morning before paring some of those gains.

Toyota was up more than 10 percent, Sony piled on more than seven percent, while chip giant Tokyo Electron added 12.26 percent.

“This is a sweeping, across-the-board gain,” said analysts at Nomura, adding that investors will also pay close attention to the forex market.

Nomura expects the Nikkei to end with the biggest-ever gain, beating 2,676.55 points in October 1990.