Buying returns to bourse, KSE-100 up nearly 1,400 points

After days of selling pressure, buying returned at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining nearly 1,400 points during the first half of the trading session on Friday.

At 12:03pm, the benchmark index was hovering at 176,926.74, up by 1,378.76 points or 0.79%.

Buying was observed in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refinery. Index-heavy stocks, including ARL, HUBCO, PSO, MARI, OGDC, PPL, POL, SSGC, HBL, MCB and MEBL, traded in the green.

On Thursday, PSX extended its cautious spell as investors remained on the sidelines amid uncertainty surrounding ongoing diplomatic engagements between the United States and Iran over regional stability, resulting in a range-bound session that ended with modest losses.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index declined by 495.00 points, or 0.28%, to settle at 175,547.98 points.

Internationally, Asian markets rallied hard with Wall Street on Friday as South Korea’s ​battered market made a record comeback, stirring hopes that the recent selloff in AI-linked assets may be near an end.

Long-end U.S. Treasury yields held near 19-year highs while short-end yields eased, steepening the curve as doubts grow over the Federal Reserve’s ability to anchor inflation expectations.

South Korea’s Kospi leapt more than 10% on Friday, reversing steep ​losses from earlier in the week. Japan’s Nikkei similarly advanced 4.5% and MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 4.6%.

That followed surges in ​AI heavyweights and overnight, lifting chip stocks broadly after upbeat earnings and forecasts from the pair eased concerns over hefty capital spending.

Despite Friday’s turnaround, the Kospi was still set to lose over 25% in July, marking its largest monthly loss since 1997.

The wild swings in the market had prompted South Korean authorities to rein in the leveraged products that have wreaked havoc and wiped out the savings of some retail investors.

Nasdaq futures were up 0.6% and S&P 500 futures added 0.3%. In Europe, EUROSTOXX 50 futures advanced 0.5%, while FTSE ‌futures and ⁠DAX futures rose 0.25% and 0.34%, respectively.

Chinese markets followed suit. China’s CSI AI index rose more than 7%. The Hang Seng Tech index advanced 0.5%.

This is an intraday update