Daily Times

The 100-Index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) turned around to bullish trend on Friday, gaining 1,893.08 points, a positive change of 2.13 percent, closing at 90,859.85 points as compared to 88,966.77 points on last trading day.

A total of 465,865,841 shares were traded during the day as compared to 546,274,609 shares the previous trading day, whereas the price of shares stood at Rs 23.089 billion against Rs.24.117 billion on the last trading day.

As many as 430 companies transacted their shares in the stock market, 220 of them recorded gains and 156 sustained losses, whereas the share price of 54 companies remained unchanged. The three top trading companies were Silk Bank Limited with 62,534,221 shares at Rs 0.94 per share, K-Electric Limited with 57,568,675 shares at Rs 4.67 per share and WorldCall Telecom with 27,214,192 shares at Rs1.22 per share.

Unilever Pakistan Foods Limited witnessed a maximum increase of Rs.572.11 per share price, closing at Rs 19,161.11, whereas the runner-up was Siemens (Pakistan) Engineering with Rs 58.62 rise in its per share price to Rs 1,451.49.

Rafhan Maize Products Company Limited witnessed a maximum decrease of Rs 158.40 per share closing at Rs 7,541.60 followed by Sapphire Fibres Limited with Rs 61.61 decline to close at Rs 1,216.11.

Global Stocks: Global stock markets diverged Friday after tame tech earnings and investor jitters less than a week before a neck-and-neck US presidential election.

Big tech delivered a mixed bag of earnings this week, with concerns over AI spending overshadowing better-than-expected results from Microsoft and Facebook-parent Meta.

Wall Street closed sharply down on Thursday, with the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite index dropping nearly three percent.

Shares in Apple were lower in premarket trading even as the company enjoyed a boost from iPhone sales, while tech titan Amazon surged after it reported strong-than expected results particularly in cloud computing.

Tokyo dropped more than two percent as technology earnings hit it’s Nikkei index.

Major European indices fared better, buoyed by a forecast-beating Chinese manufacturing report that boosted hopes for recovery in the world’s second-largest economy.

London gained 0.8 percent, despite lingering fears of the consequences of the Labour governments high tax, high spending budget unveiled this week.

The UK’s 10-year borrowing rate reached its highest level since November 2023 on Thursday, on fears of a resurgence in inflation.

“Worries continue to swirl about the UK Budget stoking inflation and adding to the debt burden,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown.

On the data front, investors are awaiting a key monthly US jobs report released later today for signals about the size and pace of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.

“Barring a major surprise, markets will likely maintain their bets that the Federal Reserve will cut rates by a quarter-point next Wednesday,” said Patrick Munnelly, market strategist at Tickmill Group. a
Expectations of a major rate cut by the Fed, like the bumper 50 basis point cut in September, have receeded after data showed strong economic growth in the United States and that inflation is just above the central bank’s long-term two percent target.