PSX: buying at bourse, KSE-100 up over 1,300 points
- Benchmark index was hovering at 167,869.45
The Pakistan Stock Exchange's KSE-100 Index surged over 1,300 points on Tuesday morning, driven by broad buying across key sectors, contrasting with mixed global market trends.
- Key sectors and index-heavy stocks driving the PSX rally.
- Global market performance ahead of US midterm elections.
- Impact of tech earnings and Apple's forecast on Wall Street.
Buying interest was observed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining over 1,300 points during the opening minutes of trading on Tuesday.
At 9:30am, the benchmark index was hovering at 167,869.45, up 1,305.39 points or 0.78%.
Key sectors saw buying, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and power generation. Index-heavy stocks, including ARL, HUBCO, MARI, OGDC, PPL, POL, PSO, SSGC, HBL, MCB, MEBL and NBP, traded in the green.
On Monday, PSX closed marginally higher as support from select heavyweights was offset by renewed selling pressure in refinery stocks following a government decision to absorb higher petrol import costs through a reduction in the Petroleum Levy. The benchmark KSE-100 Index gained 154.81 points, or 0.09%, to close at 166,564.07 points.
Globally, stocks edged lower at the start of Asian trade on Tuesday, and oil prices stabilised after the previous session’s tumble, with investors on edge ahead of the start of voting for the US midterm elections.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.9%, led by a decline of as much as 3.8% in Korean shares.
S&P 500 e-mini futures edged up 0.1%, while Japanese markets are closed for a holiday.
Overnight, stocks on Wall Street edged lower, with the S&P 500 slipping 0.5% as tech sector earnings weighed on investor confidence, even as data showed US manufacturing activity picked up in October amid strong domestic demand.
Apple shares extended losses, falling 2.8% in after-hours trading after the iPhone maker on Monday forecast lower gross margins for the crucial holiday quarter, citing rising memory-chip costs, and projected services revenue growth that fell well short of Wall Street expectations.
Investors are also preparing to vote in the US midterm elections, where President Donald Trump’s Republican Party is facing a challenge to keep its hold on Congress.
Opinion polls favour the Democrats to win the House, though the Senate remains too close to call. Prediction market sites Polymarket and Kalshi currently assign around a 75% probability that the Democrats will control the Senate.
This is an intraday update
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