Buying rally continues, KSE-100 gains over 900 points
A day after gaining over 6,000 points, the buying rally continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining over 900 points during the opening hours of trading on Wednesday.
At 10:20am, the benchmark index was hovering at 123,166.23 level, a gain of 919.60 points or 0.75%.
Positive momentum was observed in key sectors including automobile assemblers, commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and refinery. Index-heavy stocks including NRL, MARI, PPL, SSGC, MEBL, NBP and UBL traded in the green.
On Tuesday, the PSX surged to a record high, driven largely by investor optimism following a ceasefire agreement between Iran and Israel.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index rose significantly 6,079 points or 5.23%, settling at record level of 122,246 points. This marked the second-highest single-day increase in terms of points.
Internationally, Asian stocks stabilised on Wednesday as crude oil hovered near multi-week lows, as a ceasefire between Israel and Iran buoyed sentiment, even as hostilities threatened to flare up again.
The US dollar wallowed close to an almost four-year trough versus the euro with two-year U.S. Treasury yields sagging to 1 1/2-month lows as lower oil prices reduced the risk to bonds from an inflation shock.
The shaky truce has so far held, although Israel says it will respond forcefully to Iranian missile strikes that came after US President Donald Trump had announced an end to the hostilities.
In addition, US airstrikes did not destroy Iran's nuclear capability and only set it back by a few months, according to a preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment, contradicting Trump's earlier comments that Iran's nuclear programme had been 'obliterated'.
Japan's Nikkei and Australia's stock benchmark were flat, while Taiwan's index gained 1%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.6% and mainland Chinese blue chips eased 0.1%.
US stock futures were little changed.
An MSCI index of global stocks held steady after climbing to a record high overnight.
This is an intra-day update
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