KARACHI : Heavy selling gripped the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday, dragging the benchmark KSE-100 Index down by more than 2,100 points within the first few minutes of trading.
By 10:05am, the index stood at 178,391.58, reflecting a decline of 2,121.06 points, or 1.18%.
Major sectors came under pressure, including cement, commercial banking, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration, oil marketing companies (OMCs), and power generation. Prominent index-weighted stocks such as OGDC, MARI, POL, PPL, HUBCO, ARL, MCB, MEBL, and UBL were all trading in negative territory.
According to sources cited by Business Recorder, the government is weighing the option of imposing a cess on fertiliser producers to recover windfall gains, with the proceeds expected to be earmarked for farmers’ support.
A day earlier, the PSX had already faced sustained selling, as uncertainty, broad-based weakness across sectors, and negative sentiment linked to large-scale mining investments triggered a steep decline in key indices. On Thursday, the KSE-100 Index fell by 2,537.16 points, or 1.39%, closing at 180,512.65.
Internationally, Asian equities pulled back from record levels on Friday, pressured by concerns over narrowing profit margins in the technology sector. Losses in major tech names, including Apple, pushed investors toward safer assets such as bonds ahead of crucial US inflation figures.
Overnight on Wall Street, the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite slid 2% after Cisco Systems reported quarterly adjusted gross margins below expectations due to rising memory chip costs. Its shares plunged 12%, erasing nearly $40 billion from its market value.
The downturn extended to other technology heavyweights, with Apple dropping 5%—its steepest single-day fall since April last year, when sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump rattled markets. Transportation stocks also faced pressure amid concerns about disruptions linked to artificial intelligence.