PSX: Buying returns as KSE-100 up 600 points
- Benchmark index was hovering at 180,438.76
The Pakistan Stock Exchange rebounded significantly, gaining nearly 600 points, fueled by renewed buying interest and hopes for a US-Iran peace arrangement.
- Pakistan Stock Exchange's significant rebound and sector performance.
- Potential US-Iran peace arrangement and energy market impact.
- Global market reactions to geopolitical tensions and US inflation data.
Buying interest returned at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining nearly 600 points during the opening minutes of trading on Wednesday.
At 9:40am, the benchmark index was hovering at 180,438.76, up by 592.08 points or 0.33%.
Buying was observed in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and power generation. Index-heavy stocks, including HUBCO, MARI, POL, PPL, HBL, MCB, MEBL, NBP and UBL, traded in the green.
Pakistan on Tuesday indicated that the US and Iran were close to reaching an arrangement that could ease tensions which have embroiled energy markets.
“Things are shaping up again in favour of a peace arrangement or a deal,” Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told Bloomberg News on Tuesday.
“The signals in the last two, three days are that we are close to some sort of an arrangement.”
On Tuesday, the PSX came under renewed selling pressure amid heightened geopolitical uncertainty, rising crude oil prices and diminishing prospects of a near-term US-Iran agreement. The benchmark index closed at 179,846.68 points, shedding 1,463.60 points or 0.81%.
Internationally, oil and gold prices climbed while regional shares edged nervously higher on Wednesday as geopolitical tensions ratcheted up ahead of key US inflation data.
The yen was mostly flat against the dollar, having unwound much of its gains following rare intervention in currency markets by Japan and the United States.
The US and Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis reported separate attacks on shipping, while Asia was rattled by an early morning missile launch by North Korea. Markets remained focused on US consumer price index data later in the session for signals of timing for a potential Federal Reserve rate hike.
US crude rose 0.89% to $83.94 a barrel, and Brent advanced to $89.60 per barrel, up 0.78% on the day. Spot gold gained 0.46% to $4,387.03 an ounce.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.5%, while Japan’s benchmark Nikkei share gauge traded flat as the market reopened after a holiday.
This is an intraday update
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