After experiencing a steep sell-off on Monday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Wednesday resisted further decline and staged a strong recovery, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining over 800 points during the opening minutes of trading.
At 9:35am, the benchmark index was hovering at 158,706.56, an increase of 836.06 points or 0.53%.
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, MARI, OGDC, POL, PPL, FFC, MEBL, NBP and UBL, traded in the green.
According to data released by the Economic Affairs Division, Pakistan paid a total of SDR 1.90 billion (equivalent to $2.69 billion) in interest under various IMF programmes, which includes surcharges amounting to SDR 401.24 million from 2008 to June 2025.
On Tuesday, PSX witnessed a sharp downturn as renewed selling pressure gripped the market, wiping out the previous session’s strong gains. The benchmark KSE-100 Index fell sharply by 3,667.90 points, or 2.27%, to close at 157,870.50.
The sell-off was due to escalating political noise and a fragile security situation.
At least 12 were killed and 36 others were injured on Tuesday in a suicide blast outside the district and sessions court building in Islamabad’s G-11 area. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
Globally, stocks tiptoed forward at the start of Asian trading on Wednesday as the US Congress looked set to end the federal shutdown and traders looked for direction in the absence of clues from government data services.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.1% in early trading as members of the House of Representatives prepared to vote on a measure that could restore funding to government agencies and end a shutdown that started on October 1 and is now the longest in U.S. history.
Australian stocks led gains, advancing 0.2% as lithium miners drove commodity stocks higher, while Japan’s Topix jumped 0.6%.
This is an intra-day update
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