Daily Times

The 100-Index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued with bullish trend on Thursday, gaining 836.47 points, a positive change of 0.90 percent, closing at 94,191.89 points as compared to 93,355.43 points on the last trading day.

A total of 1,084,344,207 shares were traded during the day as compared to 807,067,924 shares the previous trading day, whereas the price of shares stood at Rs 32.680 billion against Rs.31.688 billion on the last trading day.

As many as 465 companies transacted their shares in the stock market, 262 of them recorded gains and 147 sustained losses, whereas the share price of 56 companies remained unchanged.

The three top trading companies were WorldCall Telecom with 177,393,273 shares at Rs 1.38 per share, Hascol Petrol with 59,224,094 shares at Rs 8.21 per share and Tree Battery Limited with 47,940,702 shares at Rs.15.81 per share.

Rafhan Maize Products Company Limited witnessed a maximum increase of Rs.299.00 per share price, closing at Rs 7,900.00, whereas the runner-up was PIA Holding Company LimitedB with Rs 68.74 rise in its per share price to Rs 899.98.

Pakistan Engineering Company Limited witnessed a maximum decrease of Rs 67.74 per share closing at Rs 707.26 followed by Philip Morris (Pakistan) Limited with Rs 37.45 decline to close at Rs 790.22.

Separately, Asian markets diverged Thursday as investors digested US inflation data that supported the case for another interest rate cut next month but worries over the next Trump administration continued to cloud optimism.

Bitcoin sat just above the $90,000 level it broke for the first time Wednesday when it hit a record $93,462, with observers expecting it to soon top $100,000 following pro-crypto pledges from the president-elect.

After a tough first half of the week for Asian investors, many are trying to get back into the game via bargain-buying, but concerns over another possible China-US trade war, and Beijing’s economic woes are weighing on confidence.

Wall Street provided a tepid lead after news that US consumer prices had picked up pace last month from September, which was in line with forecasts but highlighted the slow progress in bringing inflation under control. The figure lifted hopes that the Federal Reserve will cut rates again next month, though officials at the bank trod a careful road. Minneapolis Fed boss Neel Kashkari said: “Right now, I think that inflation is headed in the right direction. I’ve got confidence about that, but we need to wait.”

“We’ve got another month or six weeks of data to analyse before we make any decisions,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

His Dallas counterpart Lorie Logan added that she saw more reductions to borrowing costs but that the neutral level — one which supports growth but keeps inflation in check — was uncertain.

“I think it behooves us to proceed cautiously at this point,” she said.

Still, there are worries about the impact of Donald Trump’s plans to slash taxes, ease regulations and impose huge tariffs on imports — particularly from China — which observers say could reignite inflation.

Some players are now scaling back their bets on how many cuts the Fed will make in 2025 in response to that.

After Wall Street’s flat day, Asia fluctuated. Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Taipei, Manila and Jakarta all fell in the morning, though Tokyo, Sydney, Seoul and Wellington eked out gains.

The dollar extended gains against its peers on the prospect that Trump’s policies will keep the Fed from cutting as much as initially expected. The greenback topped 155 yen for the first time since July, putting focus on Japanese authorities, who have said they are prepared to support their unit if they considered moves to be one-sided or speculative.

The greenback was also at a more than one-year high against the euro.

In company news, Chinese tech giant Tencent rose more than one percent after an upbeat earnings announcement in which it saw forecast-beating profits in the third quarter.