Bulls rule PSX as benchmark index gains 839 points

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued to witness bullish trends on Friday with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 839 points, ARY News reported.

The KSE-100 index gained 839 points and closed at 31,621 points. The stock market gained 3512 points during the ongoing week.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan Stock Exchange had witnessed bearish trends in the outgoing month and lost level 0f 30,000.

Meanwhile, crude prices slipped Friday after the previous day’s record surge as traders questioned Donald Trump’s claims that two biggest oil-producing countries were set to slash output, while equities struggled into the weekend after another thunderous rise in US jobless claims caused by the virus crisis.

Equity markets were choppy despite a healthy lead from Wall Street as traders absorbed data showing a whopping 6.7 million US workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, on top of the 3.3 million the week before as the coronavirus forced businesses nationwide to close their doors.

And as health officials warn the toll from the disease will get worse before the situation improves, experts are tipping further economic pain.

On Friday, the Asian Development Bank said the pandemic could cost the global economy more than $4 trillion — about five percent of output — as it ravages the United States, Europe and other major economies.

It also tipped Asian growth to come in at just 2.2 percent this year, the worst since the region’s financial crisis 22 years ago, while China’s GDP was tipped to expand 2.3 percent.