Buying momentum continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining nearly 2,500 points during the intra-day trading on Thursday.
At 1:50pm, the benchmark index was hovering at 160,649.61, an increase of 2,465.67 points or 1.56%.
Across-the-board 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 HUBCO, ARL, MARI, OGDC, PPL, POL, DGKC, HBL, MCB, MEBL and UBL, traded in the green.
In a key development, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) scheduled a meeting of its executive board on December 8 to approve the disbursement of $1.2 billion to Pakistan.
On Wednesday, the PSX staged a modest recovery, rebounding after a sharp downturn in the previous session. The KSE-100 Index gained 313.44 points, or 0.20%, to close at 158,183.95.
Globally, stocks and gold paused for breath on Thursday as the US Congress voted to end the longest government shutdown on record, with markets waiting for the resumption of US economic data to gauge the rates outlook.
US stock futures traded either side of flat.
Japan’s Nikkei was 0.5% firmer, but the broad Topix index climbed nearly 1% to a record high as investors shifted portfolios from the frothiest artificial intelligence firms to buy exposure to other parts of the economy.
Similar moves had been afoot overnight, along with a jump in the gold price above $4,200 an ounce and a modest rally for bonds that has the US 10-year yield at 4.067%.
US President Donald Trump, who was expected to host Wall Street executives for dinner on Wednesday, would sign a bill to end the government’s shutdown at 9:45 p.m. (0245 GMT), the White House said.
Delayed economic data will likely trickle out next week, economists expect, and the focus is on whether it will back up private surveys that have shown softness in the job market.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng retreated slightly from a one-month high, and the Shanghai Composite rose 0.1%.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones index notched a record high overnight while the tech-heavy Nasdaq retreated.
This is an intra-day update
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