KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) extended its overnight bearish trend on Friday, despite a bullish start, as investors took profits ahead of the weekend.
With the situation in the Middle East remaining fluid and oil prices elevated, concerns about rising inflationary pressures persisted. As a result, the benchmark KSE-100 index closed in the red for a second consecutive session.
A staff-level agreement with the IMF mission on Thursday, following the successful completion of the fourth Extended Fund Facility and third Resilience and Sustainability Facility reviews, paved the way for $1.2 billion in disbursements but failed to enthuse equity investors, as rising oil and LNG import costs heightened concerns about macroeconomic stability.
Topline Securities Ltd said the market turned range-bound, with the index fluctuating between an intraday high of 168,134.13 and a low of 166,837.73, before closing at 167,089.28, down 352.63 points, or 0.21 per cent.
The lacklustre performance reflected investors’ preference for staying on the sidelines amid a lack of fresh market catalysts and persistently elevated oil prices.
Ali Najib, Deputy Head of Trading at Arif Habib Ltd, said the index traded in both directions amid cautious investor sentiment, fuelled by geopolitical uncertainty and position-squaring ahead of the weekend.
On the macroeconomic front, the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) for the week ended Oct 8 rose 11.97pc year-on-year and 0.57pc week-on-week. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s liquid foreign exchange reserves rose by $26.5m to $26.8bn as of Oct 2, with SBP reserves at $21.4bn, providing an import cover of 3.04 months.
Engro Fertiliser, TPL REIT Fund I, Engro Holdings, Pakistan Services Ltd and Pakistan Oilfield collectively added 130 points, while Habib Bank, United Bank, MCB Bank, Oil and Gas Development Company and Fauji Fertiliser dragged the index down by a combined 335 points.
Investor participation remained subdued, with trading volume falling 15.43pc to 309.4 million shares and total turnover value dipping 12.88pc to Rs15.4bn. Cnergyico PK led the volume chart with 27.2m shares.
Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2026
