Profit-taking wipes out almost all gains at PSX

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday ended with thin gains as investors resorted to profit-taking at attractive levels following a spike in the KSE-100 index earlier in the day. The absence of encouraging developments kept investors cautious, leading to limited activity in major stocks while smaller companies attracted the interest of market players. The index opened on a positive note in the morning, reaching its intra-day peak of 79,254.25 points before midday. Major support came from cement, banking and petroleum sectors. However, as the session progressed, the investors started offloading their positions, which pushed the market to its intra-day low of 78,917.29 just before the end of trading. A significant development was the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI)-based inflation rate, which fell by 0.15% week-on-week, marking its fourth consecutive week of decline.