Bulls return to PSX as KSE-100 settles with over 7,000 points gain

A day after heavy selling, bulls returned to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as investor sentiment improved amid signs of easing geopolitical tensions and reduced political noise. The benchmark KSE-100 Index gained over 7,000 points during the trading session on Tuesday.

Buying momentum prevailed throughout the trading session, pushing the benchmark index to an intra-day high of 165,866.77.

At close, the KSE-100 Index settled at 165,476.02, an increase of 7,032.60 points or 4.44%.

“This is the second-highest single-day gain,” said Topline Securities, second only to the 10,123 points surge recorded on 12th May, 2025.

Earlier, across-the-board buying interest 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 HUBCO, ARL, MARI, OGDC, POL, PPL, PSO, SSGC, SNGPL, and WAFI, settled in the green.

“The rally was fuelled by easing geopolitical and domestic political tensions, coupled with renewed investor interest as the results season commenced,” said Arif Habib Limited (AHL).

Analysts said that the market momentum continues to depend on political stability and the government’s commitment towards the implementation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.

“Sentiment remains the same. There was a huge sell-off from mutual funds yesterday,” Saad Hanif, Head of Research at Ismail Iqbal Securities, told Business Recorder.

He said that the buying comes amid “reduced political noise”.

In a key development, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb met with Jihad Azour, Director of the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department, on the sidelines of the Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington, DC.

Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to Pakistan’s ongoing reform agenda and maintaining macroeconomic discipline.

On Monday, the PSX witnessed a sharp downturn as widespread profit-taking and weak investor sentiment dragged all major indices deep into negative territory. The benchmark KSE-100 Index fell by 4,654.77 points, or 2.85%, to close at 158,443.42 points.

Internationally, Asian stocks stumbled on Tuesday, as signs the US and China were preparing for trade talks later this month were tempered by uncertainty over whether the two nations could strike a durable deal.

Early gains for MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan and the S&P 500 futures petered out to trade flat. Markets had earlier joined the rebound from Monday’s cash session after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said US President Donald Trump remains on track to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea in late October.

Wall Street’s main indexes ended as much as 2.2% higher overnight, led by chipmakers, after Trump struck a more conciliatory tone on trade tensions with China.

Global equities had abruptly turned red on Friday after Trump announced 100% tariffs on China, reviving memories of the market volatility after April’s “Liberation Day” announcement.

The selloff only halted after the US president cooled his rhetoric on his Truth Social network.

After early gains in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index fell 0.4%, while in the mainland, the CSI 300 gauge of blue-chip Chinese stocks slipped 0.1%.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee posted a marginal gain against the US dollar during trading in the inter-bank market on Tuesday. At close, the local currency settled at 281.15, up by Re0.01 against the US dollar.

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 1,179 million from 1,365 million recorded in the previous close. The value of shares declined to Rs59.20 billion from Rs62.46 billion in the previous session.

B.O.Punjab was the volume leader with 100.72 million shares, followed by P.T.C.L. with 79.83 million shares, and Pace (Pak) Ltd with 74.77 million shares.

Shares of 483 companies were traded on Tuesday, of which 391 registered an increase, 69 recorded a fall, and 23 remained unchanged.