A day after gaining over 6,000 points, the buying rally continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index settling with a gain of over 500 points on Wednesday.
Positive momentum persisted throughout the trading session, pushing the KSE-100 Index hit an intra-day high of 123,256.55.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 122,761.64 level, an increase of 515.01 or 0.42%.
On Tuesday, the PSX surged to a record high, driven largely by investor optimism following a ceasefire agreement between Iran and Israel.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index rose significantly 6,079 points or 5.23%, settling at record level of 122,246 points. This marked the second-highest single-day increase in terms of points.
Internationally, Asian stocks stabilised on Wednesday as crude oil hovered near multi-week lows, as a ceasefire between Israel and Iran buoyed sentiment, even as hostilities threatened to flare up again.
The US dollar wallowed close to an almost four-year trough versus the euro with two-year U.S. Treasury yields sagging to 1 1/2-month lows as lower oil prices reduced the risk to bonds from an inflation shock.
The shaky truce has so far held, although Israel says it will respond forcefully to Iranian missile strikes that came after US President Donald Trump had announced an end to the hostilities.
In addition, US airstrikes did not destroy Iran’s nuclear capability and only set it back by a few months, according to a preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment, contradicting Trump’s earlier comments that Iran’s nuclear programme had been “obliterated”.
Japan’s Nikkei and Australia’s stock benchmark were flat, while Taiwan’s index gained 1%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.6% and mainland Chinese blue chips eased 0.1%.
US stock futures were little changed.
An MSCI index of global stocks held steady after climbing to a record high overnight.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee posted marginal improvement against the US dollar, appreciating 0.02% during trading in the interbank market on Wednesday. At close, the local currency settled at 283.72, a gain of Re0.05 against the greenback.
Volume on the all-share index decreased to 749.80 million from 804.78 million recorded in the previous close.
The value of shares declined to Rs28.03 billion from Rs37.61 billion in the previous session.
WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 102.39 million shares, followed by Pak Refinery with 47.11 million shares, and Cnergyico PK with 39.57 million shares.
Shares of 472 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 274 registered an increase, 161 recorded a fall, while 37 remained unchanged.
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