Selling continues at bourse, KSE-100 sheds over 850 points

Selling continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding over 800 points during the opening minutes of trading on Friday. At 10am, the benchmark index was hovering at 165,641.89, down by 856.94 points or 0.51%. Selling was observed in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies and power generation. Index-heavy stocks, including HUBCO, OGDC, PPL, PSO, HBL, MEBL, NBP and UBL, traded in the red. In a key development, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has slapped 11 new Structural Benchmarks (SBs) on Pakistan including parliamentary approval of a fiscal year 2027 budget in line with IMF staff agreement to meet programme targets, notification of the semi-annual gas tariff adjustment, the annual power tariff adjustment and enhancing NAB’s autonomy and transparency by submitting to parliament amendments to the NAB ordinance to establish an open, merit-based, rigorous and competitive selection process of senior management.