Cement leads rally as KSE-100 settles with 2,700 points gain

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a strong bullish session on Friday, led by a rally in the cement sector, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining nearly 2,700 points.

The market maintained positive momentum throughout the trading day, as investor sentiment remained upbeat amid aggressive buying across key sectors, pushing the index to an intraday high of 173,093.45 points, while the session low stood at 170,946.54 points.

The index remained comfortably in positive territory throughout the day, indicating broad-based participation and sustained confidence among market participants.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 172,399.90, up by 2,696.30 points or 1.59%

On Thursday, the benchmark KSE-100 Index gained 276.16 points or 0.16% to settle at 169,703.60 points.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks joined a global rally on Friday on hopes a Middle East peace deal may finally ​materialise.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan jumped 3.2%, led by a 7.4% surge in South Korea’s KOSPI. Japan’s Nikkei rose 2.7%.

China’s ‌blue-chip CSI300 ⁠rose 1%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.3%.

Overnight, Wall Street rallied with the three major indexes registering their biggest daily gains since April 8, when the U.S. and Iran agreed to a temporary ceasefire. The Nasdaq jumped 2.5%, helped by expectations of a strong market debut for Musk’s SpaceX.