Buying interest was evident at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining over 300 points during the first half of the trading session on Friday.
At 12pm, the benchmark index was hovering at 166,532.86, up 346.70 points or 0.21%.
Key sectors saw buying, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation, and refineries. Index-heavy stocks, including ARL, HUBCO, MARI, POL PPL, PSO, HBL, MCB, MEBL and UBL, traded in the green.
In a key development, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Thursday further extended the deadline for filing income tax returns for Tax Year 2026 to October 31, 2026, providing taxpayers an additional two weeks to submit their returns.
On Thursday, PSX extended its gains, supported by broad-based buying in key stocks. However, profit-taking in selected stocks at higher levels trimmed some intraday gains, while escalating Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia added to regional geopolitical concerns. The benchmark KSE-100 Index advanced by 768.66 points, or 0.46%, to close at 166,186.17 points.
Globally, Asian stocks rebounded on Friday following heavy selling in the previous session when investors dumped tech shares as questions about cloud company CoreWeave’s debt pile fuelled worries about the financing driving the AI boom.
Bond markets stabilised after yields plunged on Thursday as traders bought up Treasuries and other safe-haven sovereign debt. The dollar limped towards its first weekly loss in five weeks as lower US yields eroded the currency’s appeal.
Gold eased back from Thursday’s high, while Brent crude drifted lower toward $105.
Japan’s tech-heavy Nikkei rose 1.8%, making back some of Thursday’s almost 5% tumble.
South Korea’s KOSPI climbed 2.8%, following a nearly 8% plunge.
Taiwan’s stock benchmark rose 0.7%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 1.1%. Mainland Chinese blue chips edged 0.3% higher.
US stock futures were lower, with tech-focused Nasdaq futures off 0.3% and S&P 500 futures down 0.1%, after the respective cash indexes notched small gains on Thursday.
This is an intraday update