The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed another downturn on Thursday after a brief period of early buying, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index dropping nearly 1,200 points.
The market opened in positive territory but quickly came under selling pressure.
At 10:50 AM, the KSE-100 Index stood at 158,406.27 points, down 1,171.92 points or 0.73%.
Significant selling pressure was observed across major sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, refineries, and power generation. Stocks such as MCB, PSO, PPL, POL, OGDC, Mari, HUBCO, NBP, MEBL, and ARL also traded in the negative zone.
On Wednesday, the PSX had already experienced heavy selling, with the KSE-100 Index plunging 1,703.58 points or 1.06%, closing at 159,578.19 points.
Global Market Overview
Across international markets, Asian shares rebounded on Thursday after heavy losses in the previous session. Investors returned to equities as U.S. economic data came in stronger than expected, supporting markets trading near record highs.
U.S. Treasury yields maintained their overnight gains as traders further reduced expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut next month. This helped keep the U.S. dollar near a five-month high.
In the United States, the services sector reached an eight-month high in October, supported by robust new orders. Private-sector employment also rose by 42,000 jobs, exceeding expectations. These developments boosted Wall Street, with tech stocks stabilizing and strong corporate earnings restoring investor confidence.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei rose 1.5%, recovering after a steep 2.5% decline on Wednesday. South Korea’s KOSPI gained more than 2% in early trading following its previous 2.85% drop.
MSCI’s broad Asia-Pacific index (excluding Japan) edged up 0.32%.
On Wednesday, Asian markets had faced sharp declines amid concerns of overvaluation, though most analysts viewed the dip as a temporary correction rather than a sign of deeper trouble.
