The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) maintained its bullish run, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index crossing the 142,000 level during the intra-day trading on Monday.
At 1:40pm, the benchmark index was hovering at 142,117.00 level, an increase of 1,082.02 points or 0.77%.
Buying was observed in key sectors including commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refinery. Index-heavy stocks including ARL, MARI, OGDC, PPL, POL, PSO, WAFI, HBL, MEBL and NBP traded in the green.
Analysts attributed the buying rally to investor optimism after the US and Pakistan struck a trade deal that will result in lower tariffs for the South Asian nation.
During the previous week, the PSX capped off a historic week, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index closing at an all-time high of 141,035 points, up 1.3% on a weekly basis.
The index also touched a new intraday record of 141,161 points, underscoring a remarkable reversal in market sentiment that was largely driven by an unexpected breakthrough in trade relations with the United States and renewed investor confidence in Pakistan’s macroeconomic trajectory.
Internationally, Asian share markets followed Wall Street lower on Monday as fears for the US economy returned with a vengeance, spurring investors to price in an almost certain rate cut for September and undermining the dollar.
Some early resilience in US stock futures and a continued retreat in oil prices did help limit the losses, but the bleak message from the July payrolls report was hard to ignore.
Not only had revisions meant payrolls were 290,000 below where investors had thought they would be, but the three-month average slowed to just 35,000 from 231,000 at the start of the year.
Neither did the reaction of President Donald Trump instil confidence, as the firing of the head of Labor Statistics threatened to undermine confidence in US economic data.
Likewise, news that Trump would get to fill a governorship position at the Federal Reserve early added to worries about the politicisation of interest rate policy.
The prospect of lower borrowing costs offered some support for equities and S&P 500 futures inched up 0.1%, while Nasdaq futures rose 0.2%.
Asian share markets, however, were still catching up with Friday’s retreat, and the Nikkei fell 2.1%, while South Korea dipped 0.2%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan broke the mould and firmed 0.3%.
This is an intra-day update
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