Pakistan stocks decline on foreign selling; Dubai, India witness profit-taking

Pakistan stocks remained in pressure on Friday attributable to selling by foreign corporates over the last couple of trading session, which is keeping the investor sentiment in check.

Major selling was witnessed in MARI, UBL, MCB, NBP and ENGRO.

Analysts said concerns remained over IMF conditions to end energy subsidies, monitoring government spending, closure of SOEs and structural tax reforms. Ongoing political noise, delays over privatisation of SOEs and pressure amid future contracts rollover kept investors at backfoot.

The KSE-100 index lost 0.45% or 365.83 points to close at 81,292.13 points.

Indian shares settled marginally lower on Friday as investors booked profits at the end of a week.

An outsized US rate cut last Wednesday has bolstered foreign flows into emerging markets and lifted Indian benchmarks to record highs for seven consecutive sessions.

Investors are booking profits in stocks that saw gains in the record run and are buying stocks that remained muted, with no immediate triggers visible in the short-term.

India’s BSE 100 Index shed 0.01% or 2.43 points to close at 27,687.45 points.

The Dubai Financial Market (DFM) General Index shed 0.12% or 5.35 points to close at 4,521.26 points.

Commodities

Crude oil prices ticked slightly higher as the United States, the European Union and several Arab nations called for a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

Oil prices remained poised for a weekly decline as investors balanced the anticipated increase in output from Libya and the OPEC+ group against new economic stimulus measures from China.

Brent crude prices fell 0.32% to $71.37 per barrel.

Gold prices eased slightly on Friday following positive global trends as investors awaited the release of the US core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index data later in the day.

The precious yellow metal has been climbing since the US Fed cut interest rates by 50 basis points on September 18, signaling the possibility of further rate cuts.

Market expectations remain high that the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by a total of 100 basis points in November and December.

International gold prices gained 1.16% reaching $2,617.5 per ounce. In Pakistan, gold prices declined by PKR 300 to PKR 276,700/tola on Friday.

Currency

US dollar eased further against PKR, down 0.02% in the inter-bank market. Pakistani currency settled at 277.63, a gain of 0f paisas against the US dollar. In the open market USD was trading at PKR 280.