KSE-100 rises nearly 400 points as FBR extends tax return deadline
Buying interest was evident at the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Friday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 366.69 points, or 0.22%, to hover at 166,552.85 by 11:10am.
Key sectors saw buying, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refineries. Index-heavy stocks including ARL, HUBCO, MARI, POL, PPL, PSO, HBL, MCB, MEBL and UBL traded in the green.
The session followed a positive close on Thursday, when the KSE-100 advanced 768.66 points, or 0.46%, to close at 166,186.17 points. Profit-taking in selected stocks at higher levels trimmed some intraday gains, while escalating Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia added to regional geopolitical concerns.
Separately, the Federal Board of Revenue on Thursday further extended the deadline for filing income tax returns for Tax Year 2026 to October 31, 2026, providing taxpayers an additional two weeks to submit their returns.
Globally, Asian stocks rebounded on Friday following heavy selling in the previous session when investors dumped tech shares as questions about cloud company CoreWeave's debt pile fuelled worries about the financing driving the AI boom. Japan's tech-heavy Nikkei rose 1.8%, South Korea's KOSPI climbed 2.8%, Taiwan's stock benchmark rose 0.7% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 1.1%. Bond markets stabilised after yields plunged on Thursday, while the dollar limped towards its first weekly loss in five weeks. Gold eased back from Thursday's high, while Brent crude drifted lower toward $105.
