Buying continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining nearly 300 points during the opening minutes of trading on Thursday.
At 9:55am, the benchmark index was hovering at 165,716.65, up 299.15 points or 0.18%.
Buying was observed in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and power generation. Index-heavy stocks, including HUBCO, OGDCC, POL, HBL, MCB, MEBL, NBP and UBL, traded in the green.
PSX rebounded on Wednesday, as buying interest in refinery stocks, particularly Pakistan Refinery Limited and other energy-related shares, supported the market. However, investors remained cautious amid a lack of fresh triggers and persistent geopolitical uncertainty.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index advanced by 641.07 points, or 0.39%, to close at 165,417.51 points.
Globally, markets started the day on the back foot as trading kicked off in Asia on Thursday, as a quicker-than-expected increase in US consumer price inflation upped expectations for the Federal Reserve to act later this year and pushed stocks lower.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 1.2%, led by a 5.6% plunge in South Korea’s KOSPI, while the Nikkei 225 fell 1.3%. S&P 500 e-mini futures were down 0.3%.
Overnight, stocks on Wall Street logged their third day of declines after US consumer price inflation accelerated by more than expected in September.
The S&P 500 fell 1.1%, the Nasdaq Composite tumbled 1.9% and a gauge of semiconductor stocks extended losses into a sixth day, as the prospect of higher interest rates pummelled shares of Oracle, CoreWeave and other AI stocks sensitive to higher borrowing costs.
The CPI data lifted expectations of interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve over the course of the year ahead, possibly as soon as later this month. Fed funds futures are now pricing an implied 31.6% probability of a 25-basis-point hike at the US central bank’s next two-day meeting on October 28, compared to a 22.1% chance a day earlier, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
This is an intraday update