Bulls make further inroads at PSX, KSE-100 up 1,200 points in early trade

There was no stopping the bulls at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining over 1,200 points during the opening minutes of trading on Thursday.

At 9:40am, the benchmark index was hovering at 185,307.38, up by 1,257.28 points or 0.68%.

Buying interest was observed in key sectors, including commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies and power generation. Index-heavy stocks, including HUBCO, OGDC, POL, PPL, HBL, MEBL and UBL, traded in the green.

On Wednesday, PSX opened fiscal year 2026-27 on a highly bullish note as investors cheered a softer inflation outlook, declining international oil prices and mounting expectations of an imminent interest rate cut by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). The benchmark KSE-100 Index surged 3,748.40 points, or 2.08%, to settle at a record 184,050.10 points.

Globally, Asian shares skidded on Thursday as investors rotated out of chipmakers following a stellar quarter, while currency and ​bond markets braced for US jobs data that could give hints about the risk of interest rate hikes.

Oil prices hit ‌new four-month lows, with Brent crude off 0.8% to $71 a barrel, as U.S. President Donald Trump said talks with Iran had gone well in Qatar, and as more oil tankers transited through the Strait of Hormuz.

On Thursday, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.8%, while Japan’s Nikkei also dropped 1.1%, adding to losses ​from the first day of the quarter.

South Korea’s KOSPI sank 2.7%, extending a 2% slide from Wednesday.

That followed an eye-watering 68% ​surge in the second quarter on soaring AI-related demand for memory chips.

SK Hynix plunged 7.7%, and Samsung tumbled ⁠6.2%. That followed a report that Meta Platforms is building a cloud business to sell excess AI computing capacity, which sent the Facebook owner’s ​shares up 8.8% overnight.

This is an intraday update