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Selling continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) for the sixth consecutive session, as investor sentiments remained negative after talks between Islamabad and Kabul failed to bring any solution, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing 1,600 points on Wednesday. At close, the benchmark index settled at 158,465.05, a decrease of 1,635.97 points or 1.02%. Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar said early on Wednesday that the latest round of talks between Islamabad and Kabul in Istanbul had failed to bring about any workable solution as “the Afghan side kept deviating from the core issue and evaded the key point”. The talks in Istanbul began on Saturday after the worst border fighting since the Taliban’s 2021 takeover of Kabul. Further, investment sentiment regarding corporate results also contributed in the “corrective phase” at the PSX, according to brokerage house Topline Securities. “The market continued its corrective phase as investors reacted to mixed corporate results, with some firms posting robust earnings while others missed expectations. Margin calls on leveraged positions further accelerated the decline, while volatility remained elevated due to the ongoing futures rollover week,” the brokerage house said in its post-market report. Losses were largely driven by LUCK, UBL, MARI, MCB, and EFERT, which collectively eroded 577 points from the index. Conversely, NBP, THALL, BAFL, JVDC, and ILP lent partial support, adding 186 points to the benchmark, it added. In the six negative sessions, the KSE-100 Index has lost more than 8,800 points. Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar said early on Wednesday that the latest round of talks between Islamabad and Kabul in Istanbul failed to bring about any workable solution as “the Afghan side kept deviating from the core issue and evaded the key point”. The talks in Istanbul began on Saturday after the worst border fighting since the Taliban’s 2021 takeover of Kabul. On Tuesday, PSX witnessed a sharp and broad-based sell-off as heavy institutional offloading and profit-taking drove the index into a steep decline. The KSE-100 Index plunged by 2,062.78 points, or 1.27%, to close at 160,101.03. Internationally, Asian shares got a lift from Wall Street on Wednesday thanks to a fresh wave of optimism over artificial intelligence, as investors braced for a busy day headlined by the Federal Reserve’s decision and earnings from technology heavyweights. The prospect of lower US rates this week supported bonds, while the dollar sustained losses as investors bet Wednesday’s expected Fed cut would not be the last for the year. Overnight, Wall Street closed at record highs after upbeat news from Nvidia and Microsoft, with the former announcing $500 billion in bookings for its AI chips and that it would build seven supercomputers for the US Department of Energy. Microsoft meanwhile, reached a deal allowing OpenAI to restructure into a public benefit corporation while giving the software giant a stake of 27% in the ChatGPT maker. That helped propel stocks in Asia higher, with MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rising 0.16% while Japan’s Nikkei jumped more than 1% to hit another record. South Korea’s Kospi similarly scaled an all-time high, helped by strong earnings and a bullish outlook from SK Hynix, an Nvidia supplier. Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee registered marginal improvement against the US dollar in the inter-bank market on Wednesday. At close, the currency settled at 280.96, a gain of Re0.01 against the greenback. Volume on the all-share index decreased to 951.84 million from 1,019 million recorded in the previous close. The value of shares rose to Rs41.31 billion from Rs36.94 billion in the previous session. K-Electric Ltd was the volume leader with 92.99 million shares, followed by Hascol Petrol with 53.92 million shares, and WorldCall Telecom with 51.08 million shares. Shares of 478 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 123 registered an increase, 314 recorded a fall, and 41 remained unchanged.
