Positive sentiments returned to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining nearly 1,700 points during the intra-day trading on Wednesday.
At 12:50pm, the benchmark index was hovering at 162,631.53, a gain of 1,696.40 points or 1.05%.
Buying interest was observed in key sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refinery. Index-heavy stocks, including ARL, HUBCO, MARI, OGDC, POL, PPL, HBL, MCB, MEBL and UBL, traded in the green.
On Tuesday, PSX was consumed by strong selling pressure culminating in a decidedly bearish session across the board. The benchmark KSE-100 Index fell sharply, losing 752.05 points to settle at 160,935.13 points, marking a 0.47% decline.
Internationally, Asian markets struggled to make headway on Wednesday as a bout of nerves over AI valuations held back investors ahead of an earnings update from chip titan Nvidia.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.2% overnight, notching a second straight day of losses.
Valuation jitters have knocked it more than 6% below a record peak hit late in October.
S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures teetered around flat in the Asia morning. Japan’s Nikkei made an unsteady 0.4% gain and South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.8%.
Nvidia, which sells the graphics processing units (GPUs) underpinning artificial intelligence, has been at the heart of a rally that has carried stock markets around the world to record highs and lifted any stock with even tangential links to AI.
It reports after market close in the US and is expected to deliver a 56% jump in its fiscal August-October quarter revenue to $54.92 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Simultaneously, doubts are growing that the US will cut interest rates again in December, and investors worry that US President Donald Trump’s falling approval rating could drive fiscal spending and possibly stoke inflation.
That has held back safe-haven US Treasuries from gains even as the market mood has soured. Yields did fall overnight, but only slightly, and the benchmark 10-year yield was last steady at 4.11%.
Markets are pricing about a 42% chance of a 25-basis point Federal Reserve rate cut in December, something that was priced as a near certainty a month ago.
This is an intra-day update
American Dollar Exchange Rate