The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) opened with a bang, as the benchmark KSE-100 Index surged past the 124,000 level amid a gain of over 2,300 points during the intra-day trading on Wednesday.
At 12:05pm, the benchmark index was hovering at 124,325.49 level, an increase of 2,301.05 points or 1.89%.
Across-the-board buying momentum was observed in key sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and power generation. Index-heavy stocks including HUBCO, PSO, WAFI, MARI, OGDC, PPL, POL, HBL, MCB, MEBL and UBL traded in the green.
The upswing at PSX comes as the government did not announce any “major changes on taxation”, said Samiullah Tariq, Head of Research at Pak Kuwait Investment Company Limited, told media.
“Capital gain dividends are retained at 15%,” he added.
In a statement, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed satisfaction over the stock market performance.
“The bullish trend in the stock market is an expression of confidence by investors and businessmen in the people-friendly budget,” he added.
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb presented the federal budget 2025-26 to the parliament on Tuesday, with a total outlay of Rs 17.573 trillion, targeting a GDP growth rate of 4.2 per cent against 2.7 per cent in the outgoing year.
Aurangzeb termed the budget the start of a strategy to create a competitive economy and economic productivity to increase exports and fundamentally change the economy’s DNA.
The government has set an inflation target of 7.5% for the next fiscal year. Regarding the fiscal deficit, the government projected a target of 3.9% of the GDP — or Rs5,037 billion — from the outgoing fiscal year’s target of 5.9%. The primary surplus is targeted at 2.4% of the GDP against the budgeted 2% in the current fiscal year, which has been revised to 2.2%.
Internationally, share markets and the dollar on Wednesday offered a guarded welcome to the latest signs of progress in US-China trade talks, while awaiting more detail of what was decided and whether it would stick for long.
Bond investors were also hunkered down for a reading in US inflation that could show the early impact of tariffs on prices, and a Treasury auction that will test demand for the debt.
Over in London, negotiators from Washington and Beijing said they had “agreed a framework on trade” that would be taken back to their leaders.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick added the implementation plan should result in restrictions on rare earths and magnets being resolved, but again offered no specifics.
The law was another hurdle as a federal appeals court allowed President Donald Trump’s most sweeping tariffs to remain in effect on Tuesday while it reviews a lower court decision blocking them.
Investors, who have been badly burned by trade turmoil before, offered a cautious response and MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.2%.
Japan’s Nikkei added 0.4% and Australian stocks firmed 0.4%.
This is an intra-day update
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