The KSE-100 index closed Thursday’s session at 176,591.77, down 254.59 points or 0.14 per cent, after highly volatile trading (Dawn).
The index touched an intraday high of 178,291.37 and a low of 176,156.57 — a range of more than 2,100 points across the day for a net move of a quarter of one per cent.
What moved it
Selling pressure concentrated in heavyweights. United Bank, Hub Power, Bank Al-Habib, Habib Bank and Fatima Fertiliser between them took roughly 458 points off the index.
Working the other way, the oil and gas sector provided selective support: Oil and Gas Development Company, Engro Holdings and Sazgar Engineering Works added around 321 points.
The net of those two forces, plus the rest of the board, was the 254.59-point decline.
Turnover fell on both measures. Volume came in at 665 million shares, down 15.57 per cent, and traded value at Rs30.8 billion, down 22.17 per cent.
The ceiling
The benchmark again failed to break through the 178,000-180,000 band, which analysts have identified as a key resistance level. Thursday’s intraday high of 178,291.37 got into the lower edge of that zone and did not hold it.
Dawn attributes the session’s character to political uncertainty at home and mounting tensions in the Middle East — the latter being the same six-month-old war that has driven oil above $91 a barrel and, through the Strait of Hormuz, sits underneath much of Pakistan’s current fuel-price arithmetic.
Friday
At the time of writing, with Friday’s split session still in progress, the KSE-100 stood at 176,621.25, up 29.49 points or 0.02 per cent on the Thursday close (PSX).
That is an intraday reading, not a close. Friday trade at the Pakistan Stock Exchange runs in two sessions either side of prayers and does not conclude until the afternoon.
