Pakistan stocks close lower amid high volatility

Pakistan stocks closed on a negative note on Tuesday after a volatile trading session. The market's benchmark KSE-100 index experienced significant fluctuations, reaching a high of 116,843 and a low of 113,677 during the day.

Despite an initial drop, the market saw a partial recovery, buoyed by a statement from the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif suggesting that the government is considering reducing electricity rates.

The prime minister also announced that the UAE had rolled over $2 billion worth of loans for a year.

This led to a rebound in share prices.

Trading volumes, however, remained lower than recent sessions, indicating cautious sentiment among investors.

The decline in the index was primarily driven by EFERT, FFC, HBL, ATRL, and PSO, which collectively contributed to a loss of 433 points. Conversely, gains by ENGROH, OGDC, and TRG offset some of the losses, adding 436 points to the index.

Overall, the KSE-100 index shed 0.17% or 202.44 points to close at 116,052.68 points.

Separately, the Indian stock market made good gains of over 0.5% during the day, looking ready to end its two-day losing streak.

However, worries about the HMPV virus, similar to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, affected market sentiment.

The rise was even stronger in mid-sized and small companies, with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices going up by over 1% each.

The BSE-100 index gained 0.36% or 89.24 points to close at 25,063.54 points.

Meanwhile, the DFM General Index gained 0.45% or 23.23 points to close at 5,213.93 points.

Commodities

Oil prices went up on Tuesday, even though they were mostly down earlier in the day, because of excess supply.

Saudi Arabia has increased the price of the oil it sells to Asia for February deliveries.

Brent crude prices gained 0.84% to $76.94 per barrel.

Gold prices went up a bit on Tuesday because the U.S. dollar was weaker. The weaker dollar helped gold prices rise.

Uncertainty about President-elect Donald Trump's tariff plans made the dollar drop, and it was near a one-week low against other major currencies.

Reports suggesting that Trump's tariffs might not be as tough as expected led to more speculation, which further weakened the dollar.

International gold prices increased 0.15% reaching $2,644.49 per ounce.

Currency

The PKR remained steady against the US dollar in the interbank market. Pakistani currency remained flat at 278.66. In the open market, USD was trading at PKR 279.