Bulls charge ahead: KSE-100 crosses 144,000
At 10:35am, the benchmark index was hovering at 144,073.47 level, an increase of 1,036.31 points or 0.72%.
Buying interest was observed in key sectors including automobile assemblers, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and refinery. Index-heavy stocks including ARL, OGDC, POL, SNGPL, SSGC, MCB, MEBL and UBL traded in the green.
Analysts says the ongoing rally is fueled by bullish sentiment, encouraging macroeconomic indicators, and renewed investor confidence.
On Tuesday, the PSX extended its historic rally with the KSE-100 Index soaring to yet another record high. The benchmark index climbed 985 points, or 0.69%, to close at an unprecedented 143,037.17.
Internationally, Asian shares slipped along with Wall Street on Wednesday, after weak US data highlighted the damage tariffs were having on economic activity and earnings, while the dollar struggled with the drag from lower bond yields.
US services sector activity unexpectedly flatlined in July, data showed on Tuesday.
Employment further weakened and input costs climbed by the most in nearly three years, underscoring the impact from President Donald Trump's tariff policy.
Second-quarter earnings results also revealed pressure from Trump's tariff wars. Taco Bell parent Yum Brands missed expectations as steep trade duties dent consumer spending, while Caterpillar warned that US tariffs would cost it up to $1.5 billion this year.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.2%, while Japan's Nikkei eked out a small 0.2% gain.
Both Chinese blue chips and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index were flat.
Nasdaq futures fell 0.3% and S&P 500 futures eased 0.1%.
Trump on Tuesday said it would announce tariffs on semiconductors and chips in the next week or so, while the US would initially impose a 'small tariff' on pharmaceutical imports before increasing it substantially in a year or two.
He also said the US was close to a trade deal with China and that he would meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, before the end of the year if an agreement was struck. However, he threatened to further raise tariffs on goods from India over its Russian oil purchases.
This is an intra-day update
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U.S. President Donald Trump and Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan gesture at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 8, 2025. Photo: Reuters Listen to article Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a US-brokered peace agreement on Friday during a meeting with US President Donald Trump that would boost bilateral economic ties after decades of conflict and move them toward a full normalization of their relations. The deal between the South Caucasus rivals - assuming it holds - would be a significant accomplishment for the Trump administration that is sure to rattle Moscow, which sees the region as within its sphere of influence. "It's a long time - 35 years - they fought and now they're friends, and they're going to be friends for a long time," Trump said at a signing ceremony at the White House, where he was flanked by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Trump said the two countries had committed to stop fighting, open up diplomatic relations and respect each other's territorial integrity. US President Donald Trump holds the hands of Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan as they shake hands between each other during a trilateral signing event, at the White House, in Washington, D.C., August 8, 2025. Photo: Reuters The agreement includes exclusive US development rights to a strategic transit corridor through the South Caucasus that the White House said would facilitate greater exports of energy and other resources. Trump said the United States signed separate deals with each country to expand cooperation on energy, trade and technology, including artificial intelligence. Details were not released. 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Pakistan welcomes the historic peace agreement signed between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia at the White House Summit under the auspices of U.S. President Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump This landmark development marks the dawn of a new era of peace,… — Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) August 9, 2025 Trump has tried to present himself as a global peacemaker in the first months of his second term. The White House credits him with brokering a ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand and sealing peace deals between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Pakistan and India. US President Donald Trump and Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan gesture at the White House in Washington, DC, US, August 8, 2025. Photo: Reuters Conflict Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at odds since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azerbaijani region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. It's a long time - 35 years - they fought and now they're friends, and they're going to be friends for a long time US President Azerbaijan took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting almost all of the territory's 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia. Under the Soviet Union, Nagorno-Karabakh became an autonomous region within the republic of Azerbaijan, and it enjoyed de facto independence for decades after Soviet collapsed in 1991. Russia However, he has not managed to end Russia's 3-1/2-year-old war in Ukraine or Israel's conflict with Hamas in Gaza. Trump on Friday said he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on August 15 to work on ending the war. Read more: Azerbaijan to export 1.2 bcm of gas to Syria US officials said the agreement was hammered out during repeated visits to the region and would provide a basis for working toward a full normalization between the countries. 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She said Russia would likely be irritated by being excluded from the agreement and the US role in the corridor. "Now the fact that ... Armenians are shaking hands with Azerbaijanis, and they are talking about US involvement in this corridor - this is huge for Russia," she said. Olesya Vartanyan, an independent regional expert, said the deal added greater predictability to the region, but its long-term prospects would depend on continued US engagement. "Armenia and Azerbaijan ... have a much longer track record of failed negotiations and violent escalations than of peaceful resolutions," she said. "Without proper and continued US involvement, the issue will likely get deadlocked again, increasing the chances of renewed tensions." Senior administration officials said the agreement marked the end to the first of several frozen conflicts on Russia's periphery since the end of the Cold War, sending a powerful signal to the entire region. Armenia plans to award US exclusive special development rights for an extended period on the transit corridor, U.S. officials told Reuters this week. The so-called Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity has already drawn interest from nine companies, including three US firms, one official said on condition of anonymity. Daphne Panayotatos, with the Washington-based rights group Freedom Now, said it had urged the Trump administration to use the meeting with Aliyev to demand the release of some 375 political prisoners held in the country. Azerbaijan, an oil-producing country that hosted the United Nations climate summit last November, has rejected Western criticism of its human rights record, describing it as unacceptable interference.
