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       KARACHI: Despite a positive start after the signing of dozens of MoUs with Turkiye to deepen economic cooperation, the Pakistani stock market experienced selling pressure towards the end of the trading session on Friday.

       Investor sentiment turned negative due to the declining foreign exch-ange reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan and the reciprocal tariffs imposed by Donald Trump on US allies and competitors, which escalated the risk of a global trade war.

       Topline Securities Ltd said the benchmark KSE 100 index opened on a positive note and gained to make an intraday high of 918 points. However, jittery investors came in to sell during the closing hours, forcing the index to settle at 112,085.30, down 478.78 points or 0.43 per cent day-on-day.

       The top positive contribution to the index came from Lucky Cement, Fauji Fertiliser, Lucky Core Industries, and National Bank, which cumulatively contributed 486 points. Conversely, Engro Hol-dings, Pakistan Petroleum, PSO, Oil and Gas Deve-lopment Company and Meezan Bank wiped out 583 points.

       Hub Power, through a notice to the exchange, announced that Hub Power Holdings Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary, through its newly incorporated subsidiary Hubco Green (Pvt) Ltd, is entering into a new line of business which pertains to establishing and operating electric vehicle charging infrastructure, including but not limited to, importing, manufacturing, and assembling charging accessories.

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       Hubco Green is entering into a collaboration agreement with PSO to install electric vehicle charging infrastructure at numerous PSO locations across Pakistan.

       Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said the market suffered losses for the third straight session amid institutional profit-taking in blue-chip scrips on jittery global equities over US reciprocal tariffs.

       He added that the rupee instability, falling foreign exchange reserves on debt repayments, foreign outflows, and uncertainty over the outcome of the IMF review next month kept PSX in a bearish mood.

       The market activity remained subdued as the trading volume dipped 23.40pc to 457.04 million shares while the traded value decreased 25.02pc to Rs23.21bn day-on-day.

       Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2025