Bullish momentum was observed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index crossing the 170,000 level during the opening minutes of trading on Wednesday.
At 9:40am, the benchmark index was hovering at 170,171.82, an increase of 715.44 points or 0.42%.
Buying interest 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 HUBCO, MARI, OGDC, POL, PPL, HBL and UBL, traded in the green.
Analysts attributed the positivity to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) board clearance, which unlocks about $1.2 billion for Pakistan under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).
On Tuesday, PSX extended its bullish momentum, with the Index rallying strongly as investors built fresh positions across major sectors and overall market activity rose sharply. The benchmark index advanced 1,153.14 points, an increase of 0.69%, to close at 169,456.39.
Internationally, Asian shares and Wall Street futures gave ground on Wednesday as crunch time neared for a divided Federal Reserve policy board, and earnings results threatened to test sky-high valuations in the AI space.
With most assets frozen in the Fed headlights, attention was grabbed by a sudden slide in the Japanese yen and the continued dizzy ascent of silver prices, which both hit record peaks.
The futures market, at least, is confident the Fed will cut rates by a quarter point to 3.50-3.75% later in the day, pricing it at a 89% probability. Yet it also assumes the guidance will be hawkish, implying just a 21% chance of a January move.
Much will depend on how many “dot plot” forecasts from Fed members see one, two or no more cuts next year. Analysts also suspect that at least two of the 12 voters could dissent against an easing, putting Chair Jerome Powell in a difficult position.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.1%, as Chinese blue chips fell 0.8% in the wake of mixed inflation data.
This is an intra-day update
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