Stocks surge, KSE-100 gains over 1,100 points in early trade

A day after profit-taking, buying returned to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining over 1,100 points during the opening hours of trading.

At 11:20am, the benchmark index was hovering at 150,340.77, an increase of 1,105.51 points or 0.74%.

Buying interest was observed in key sectors including automobile assemblers, commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refinery. Index-heavy stocks traded in green, including ARL, HUBCO, PSO, SNGPL, SSGC, MEBL, NBP, and UBL.

On Thursday, PSX came under heavy selling pressure, as profit-taking erased early gains and pulled the benchmark lower, ending an extended streak of record highs. The KSE-100 Index closed at 149,235.26 points, down 1,355.74 points or 0.9%.

Internationally, stocks in Asia edged higher in a shaky start on Friday as anxious traders awaited a speech from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at the annual Jackson Hole symposium.

Financial markets are looking out for Powell to provide clues about the likelihood of a September rate cut in the wake of recent signs of job market weakness and the near-term outlook for policy.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.2%, extending its climb to 1.6% so far this month. South Korea’s Kospi index led the charge, rising 1%, while China’s blue-chip CSI 300 Index was on track for a third consecutive day of gains.

The Nikkei 225 veered between gains and losses, and was last up 0.1%.

S&P 500 futures were up 0.1%. The cash gauge on Wall Street is on a five-day losing streak, which has left it on track for its biggest one-week decline this month.

Traders had ramped up bets for a September cut following a surprisingly weak payrolls report at the start of this month, and after consumer price data showed limited upward pressure from tariffs.

However, market pricing pulled back slightly following the release of minutes from the Fed’s July meeting. Traders are now pricing in a 75% probability of a cut in September, down from 82.4% on Thursday, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.

This is an intra-day update