Buying interest returned at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining nearly 1,000 points during the opening minutes of trading on Thursday.
At 9:35am, the benchmark index was hovering at 168,449.14, an increase of 998.01 points or 0.60%.
Buying was observed in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refinery. Index-heavy stocks, including ARL, HUBCO, MARI, OGDC, PPL, HBL, MCB, MEBL and UBL, traded in the green.
On Wednesday, PSX remained bearish as investors adopted a cautious stance amid the absence of tangible progress in ongoing diplomatic negotiations and lingering uncertainty over developments between the United States and Iran, while elevated oil prices further dampened market sentiment and triggered selling in key index-heavy stocks.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index closed at 167,451.14 points, registering a decline of 1,465.09 points or 0.87%.
Globally, stocks rose on Thursday, powered by AI fervour that pushed South Korea’s SK Hynix to the brink of joining the trillion-dollar club, while the spotlight was firmly on a high-stakes summit between US President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping.
Trump received a grand welcome at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Thursday as he opened talks with President Xi, expected to focus on their fragile trade truce and flashpoints such as the Iran war and arms sales to Taiwan.
China’s blue-chip stocks eased 1% after hitting their highest level since late 2021 at the start of the session, while the yuan rose to a three-year high against the dollar as traders watched the headlines from the Trump-Xi meeting.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.3%, hovering near the record-high hit last week.
Japan’s Nikkei was perched at a new all-time peak with data showing AI-linked demand partly helped lift earnings for Japanese firms. Seoul’s KOSPI gave up its early gains to trade flat on the day.
Analysts, though, caution that the elevated oil prices and the impasse in negotiations to end the war in the Middle East could bring inflationary worries back into view.
This is an intraday update
