A day after observing a massive selloff, buying momentum returned to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining nearly 4,800 points during the intraday trading on Tuesday.
At 1:05pm, the benchmark index was hovering at 156,738.64, up by 4,765.65 points or 3.14%.
Buying was observed in key sectors, including cement, commercial banks, fertilizer, E&Ps, OMCs and power generation. Index-heavy stocks, including OGDC, POL, PPL, HUBCO, MCB, MEBL and NBP, traded in the green.
On Monday, PSX suffered one of the most dramatic trading days in its history as mounting geopolitical tensions and sharp global risk aversion sparked a massive selloff, wiping out vast amounts of market value and shaking investor confidence nationwide.
By the closing bell, the KSE-100 had fallen a staggering 16,089.17 points, i.e. 9.57%, settling at 151,973.00, marking the largest single-day point decline on record.
Internationally, stocks resumed their selloff and the dollar strengthened in early Asian trading on Tuesday as investors considered the implications of US and Israeli strikes on Iran on energy prices and the global economy.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1% to extend losses for a second day, led by a 2.5% tumble in Korean shares, while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 slumped 0.8%.
S&P 500 e-mini futures were down 0.2%.
Stocks on Wall Street stabilised after a volatile session on Monday, which saw the S&P 500 rally from an early selloff to close flat and the Nasdaq Composite climb 0.4%, as investors bought the dip in markets after the conflict in the Middle East spilt over into Lebanon.
With no end to hostilities in sight, an official from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Monday that the Strait of Hormuz is closed to marine traffic and the country will fire on any ship trying to pass.
Oil and gas prices jumped on Monday, with Brent crude futures surging as much as 13% to $82.37 a barrel, the highest since January 2025, before settling up 7.1% at $78.07 a barrel. In natural gas markets, benchmark European and Asian LNG prices leapt by around 40% on Monday.
The surge in energy prices complicates the Federal Reserve’s efforts to keep inflation under control, with policymakers already showing signs of division around the impact of artificial intelligence on the U.S. economy.
This is an intra-day update
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