KSE-100 gains 1.2% as buying continues at PSX

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a bullish session after US President Donald Trump again asserted the war with Iran would end “very quickly”, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining over 1,900 points or 1.19% on Wednesday.

After opening on a slightly volatile note and briefly dipping in early trade, the market quickly recovered as buying activity intensified across key sectors. Investor sentiment remained positive, enabling the index to steadily climb higher during mid-session trading.

The overall trading pattern reflected aggressive accumulation, particularly in the second half of the session, with the benchmark index hitting an intra-day high of 165,081.69.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 164,831.42, up by 1,934.74 points or 1.19%.

On Tuesday, PSX staged a strong rebound as easing geopolitical concerns surrounding the United States-Iran negotiations and a slight retreat in international oil prices restored investor confidence, helping the market recover a portion of recent losses. The benchmark index gained 1,091.66 points, or 0.67%, to close at 162,896.68 points.

Internationally, Asian stocks fell for a fourth straight session on Wednesday as war-driven ​inflation fears hammered bonds, while investors awaited earnings from Nvidia to see whether the world’s most valuable ‌company might help markets navigate higher borrowing costs.

The sell-off in global bond markets persisted overnight as investors ramped up bets that the Federal Reserve may need to increase interest rates this year. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield hit a 16-month high of 4.687% overnight, while the 30-year yield climbed to ​5.198%, levels not seen since 2007.

Oil prices slipped a little on Wednesday, with Brent crude futures off 0.2%, but ​stayed above $110 a barrel at $111.07.

In Beijing, Chinese leader Xi Jinping will host his “old friend” Russian President Vladimir Putin, less than a ​week after Trump’s high-profile visit.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.7% on Wednesday, while Japan’s Nikkei dropped 1.6%. South Korea’s KOSPI was down 2%.

Chinese blue-chips slipped 0.4%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index eased 0.7%.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee strengthened against the US dollar in the inter-bank market on Wednesday. At close, the local currency settled at 278.56, a gain of Re0.01 against the greenback.

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 386.39 million from 391.93 million recorded in the previous close.

The value of shares declined to Rs20.12 billion from Rs22.97 billion in the previous session.

Sui South Gas was the volume leader with 25.26 million shares, followed by B.O.Punjab with 24.57 million shares, and WorldCall Telecom with 22.78 million shares.

Shares of 483 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 302 registered an increase, 141 recorded a fall, and 40 remained unchanged.