PSX: buying at bourse, KSE-100 up over 2,000 points

Buying returned to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining over 2,000 points during trading on Tuesday.

At 2:45pm, the benchmark index was hovering at 167,875.03, up 2,007.72 points or 1.21%.

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

On Monday, heightened regional and domestic political uncertainty, coupled with elevated international crude oil prices, triggered broad-based risk aversion at the PSX, sending the market into a nosedive as selling pressure intensified across major sectors. The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged 2,288.17 points, or 1.36%, to settle at 165,867.32 points.

Globally, Asian stocks rose on Tuesday after a tech-fuelled rally lifted the Nasdaq to a record close, with a retreat in oil prices ​offering further support even as longer-dated Treasury yields hovered near multi-decade highs.

The euro languished near 17-month lows after briefly touching $1.116 ‌overnight, pressured by mounting fiscal concerns in France. Investors dumped French government bonds after an underwhelming budget, while political uncertainty deepened after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called a snap election.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.2%, while Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.7%. European stock futures climbed ​0.5%.

Nasdaq futures edged up 0.2%, and S&P 500 futures rose 0.1%. The Nasdaq notched up a record close overnight, ⁠buoyed by softer-than-expected jobs data that dampened expectations for a rate hike from the Federal Reserve this month.

AI heavyweight Nvidia climbed 2.1%, reaching a ​record-high close and boosting its market value to $5.76 trillion.

This is an intraday update