KSE-100 gains over 4.5% amid war de-escalation hopes

Bulls roared at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) amid hopes of de-escalation in the Iran-US war, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining over 4.5% on Wednesday.

The market opened on a positive note and quickly gained momentum in early trading, indicating aggressive buying activity and strong investor confidence.

The upward trajectory continued into early afternoon, and the index gained over 5% by 12pm.

A Market Halt was triggered, and all equity-based markets were suspended.

“Due to a 5% increase in the KSE-30 index from the previous trading day’s close of the same, a Market Halt has been triggered as per PSX regulations, and all equity-based markets have been suspended accordingly,” read a PSX notice.

The market resumed trading at 1:08pm.

However, after hitting an intraday high of 157,347.17, the market saw a noticeable pullback but was able to hold most of its gains.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 155,511.56, up by 6,768.25 points or 4.55%.

The rally is being fuelled by a surge of optimism across the floor, said Behtari Capital. “Reports of easing regional tensions have sparked a massive ‘risk-on’ sentiment globally,” it added.

Waqas Ghani, Head of Research at JS Global, said that markets surged on the back of Trump’s unexpectedly conciliatory remarks, which rekindled risk appetite across emerging markets and gave Pakistan’s resilient macro story the catalyst it had been waiting for.

“The broad-based rally reflects genuine underlying conviction rather than speculative froth. For investors who stayed the course through months of cautious optimism, today was simply the market catching up to what the fundamentals had been saying all along,” he told Business Recorder.

Topline Securities said the upward trend was largely supported by declining international oil prices, which bolstered investor confidence. “Furthermore, positive performance in global equity markets provided additional impetus to the bullish momentum.”

On Tuesday, PSX witnessed a strong recovery as fresh institutional and retail buying helped the benchmark indices rebound sharply after consecutive sessions of losses, with investor sentiment improving on the back of positive macroeconomic signals and supportive corporate developments. The KSE-100 Index closed at 148,743.32 points, registering a gain of 1,900.34 points or 1.29%.

Pakistan’s equity market witnessed a sharp correction in the first quarter of 2026 after three consecutive years of strong gains, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index declining around 15% during the period amid persistent selling pressure and geopolitical uncertainty.

Internationally, stocks and bonds rallied, and the dollar wallowed at the ‌start of the Asian trading session on Wednesday on hopes of a de-escalation in the Iran conflict, while significantly better-than-expected economic data for March propelled a rebound in Korean and Japanese shares.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 2.7%, snapping a four-day losing streak as South Korea’s Kospi surged as much as ​5.5%.

The Nikkei 225 also jumped 3.9% at one point, after US President Donald Trump said the United States could end its ​military attacks on Iran within two to three weeks and that Tehran did not have to make a ⁠deal as a prerequisite for the conflict winding down.

Trump will provide an update on Iran in an address to the nation at ​9 p.m. on Wednesday (0100 GMT on Thursday), White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on X. S&P 500 e-mini futures were up 0.3%, and ​Nasdaq futures gained 0.5% after the post.

Stocks on Wall Street soared, on Tuesday as traders bet on the potential off-ramp to the war, sending the S&P ‌500 ⁠2.9% higher, though oil markets were more subdued as trading resumed in Asia. Brent crude futures moved 1.1% higher to $105.16 a barrel to retrace some of the previous day’s decline.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee registered marginal gain, appreciating 0.01% against the US dollar in the inter-bank market on Wednesday. At close, the local currency settled at 279.12, a gain of Re0.03 against the greenback.

Volume on the all-share index increased to 670.87 million from 434.96 million recorded in the previous close.

The value of shares rose to Rs43.98 billion from Rs22.54 billion in the previous session.

K-Electric Ltd was the volume leader with 78.57 million shares, followed by B.O.PunjabXD with 49.51 million shares, and Cnergyico PK with 38.01 million shares.

Shares of 485 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 365 registered an increase, 67 recorded a fall, and 53 remained unchanged.