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PSX opens rollover week on turbulent note | The Express Tribune
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) opened the rollover week on a turbulent note on Monday as profit-taking and cautious sentiment drove the benchmark KSE-100 index from the intra-day high of 586 points to the low of 735 points.
It closed the day at 148,815.31, representing a decrease of 677.75 points, or 0.45%. Banking and cement stocks weighed heavily on the index’s performance.
In its market review, Topline Securities commented that the local bourse kicked off the rollover week on a volatile note, with a glimpse of profit-taking weighing on sentiment.
The benchmark index oscillated sharply, hitting the intra-day high of 586 points before slipping to the low of 735 points. It eventually closed at 148,815, down 678 points, as investors booked gains amid cautious trading.
On the sectoral front, Bank Alfalah, National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), The Searle Company and Pakistan Aluminium Beverage Cans lent support with a cumulative contribution of +92 points.
However, the losses borne by Bank AL Habib, Systems Limited, Meezan Bank, Habib Bank Limited and Lucky Cement dragged the index lower by 394 points, added Topline.
In terms of traded value, NBP (Rs2.15 billion), The Searle Company (Rs2.06 billion), Pakistan State Oil (Rs1.26 billion), Oil and Gas Development Company (Rs665.43 million) and Meezan Bank (Rs592.27 million) dominated the board, noted the brokerage house.
Overall trading volumes decreased to 693.3 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 802 million. Traded value fell to Rs26.3 billion as compared to Rs40.5 billion in the previous session.
Shares of 479 companies were traded. Of these, 204 stocks closed higher, 246 dropped and 29 remained unchanged. Kohinoor Spinning Mills was the volume leader with trading in 113.9 million shares, gaining Rs0.59 to close at Rs7.07.
The supply chain risk designation of the artificial intelligence firm is a first for a US company.
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UniQure needs to run another study to prove that its gene therapy “actually helps people with Huntington’s disease,” a senior U.S. Food and Drug Administration official said on a call with reporters Thursday.
The official, who requested anonymity before discussing sensitive information, confirmed the agency has asked the company to run a placebo controlled trial of its treatment, which is administered directly into the brain. UniQure has said that type of study isn’t ethical because it would require putting people under general anesthesia for hours, a characterization the official disputed.
“So what is really going on? UniQure is the latest company to make a failed therapy for Huntington’s patients,” the official said. “They likely acknowledge or understand at some deep level that their trial failed years ago, and instead of doing the right thing and running the correct clinical study, UniQure is performing a distorted or manipulated comparison in the mind of FDA.”
The comments mark the latest development in a messy public spat between UniQure and the FDA, and as the agency comes under fire for a number of recent drug approval application rejections, including some where companies have accused it of going back on previous guidance. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary in an interview with CNBC’s Becky Quick last week seemingly criticized UniQure’s gene therapy for Huntington’s disease. Makary didn’t name UniQure but described its treatment.
UniQure then accused the FDA of reversing its stance that the company’s clinical trial data would be sufficient to seek approval. UniQure’s study used an outside database to measure how patients with Huntington’s disease might decline without treatment, known as an external control. UniQure has said it wouldn’t be feasible to run a true randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study, considered the gold standard, because it wouldn’t be ethical to make people undergo a sham hours-long brain surgery.
The FDA official said the agency “never agreed to accept this distorted comparison” and the FDA “never makes such assurances.” Instead, the “FDA will always say, ‘Well, we have to see the data when we get it.'”
UniQure didn’t immediately comment.
The company’s stock rose more than 10% on Thursday and has fallen 58% this year as of Thursday afternoon.
Business
US mortgage rates rise to 6% after three-week slide as oil-driven bond yields climb – The Times of India
The average long-term US mortgage rate edged higher this week, ending a three-week decline as bond yields rose amid oil-price pressures linked to the war with Iran.The benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage rate increased to 6% from 5.98% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said on Thursday. A year ago, the average rate stood at 6.63%, AP reported.The modest uptick breaks a three-week slide in borrowing costs, with mortgage rates having hovered close to the 6% mark for most of this year. Last week’s average had marked the first time the rate dipped below 6% since September 2022, reaching its lowest level in nearly three and a half years.Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate policy, investor expectations about inflation and economic growth, and movements in the bond market.They typically track the direction of the 10-year US Treasury yield, which lenders use as a benchmark for pricing home loans.The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.14% at midday Thursday, up from around 4% a week earlier.Treasury yields have moved higher in recent days as rising oil prices added fresh inflation concerns, potentially complicating the Federal Reserve’s plans to cut interest rates.
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