PSX: stocks surge, KSE-100 up 600 points in early trade
The Pakistan Stock Exchange's benchmark KSE-100 Index was up over 600 points in early trade on Friday, recovering part of the previous session's loss after US President Donald Trump said the US will not launch an attack on Iran before November's US midterm elections.
At 9:30am the index was at 168,043.33, up 601.43 points or 0.36%, according to an intraday update. Buying was reported in automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and power generation. Index-heavy stocks, including HUBCO, MARI, OGDC, PPL, POL, SSGC, PSO, HBL, MEBL, MCB and UBL, traded in the green.
The early surge follows a fall of 1,138.50 points, or 0.68%, on Thursday, when the index closed at 167,441.91, after a sharp rise in global crude oil prices amid heightened Middle East geopolitical risks triggered widespread profit-taking.
Trump said on Thursday that the US will not launch an attack on Iran before November's US midterm elections, though traders remained sceptical about progress towards ending the war. Brent crude futures were at $103.70 per barrel in Asian hours after surging more than 4% in the previous session, on concerns over a Middle East war that has fanned inflation worries and led to higher rates across the globe.
Broader Asian equities slipped on Friday and were set for a second straight weekly drop, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down 0.16% and heading for an over 1% drop for the week. Markets in South Korea and Taiwan were closed for a holiday, and Japan's Nikkei fell more than 1%. On Wall Street, Tech stocks led the main indexes lower overnight after a report that OpenAI's annualised revenue was $20 billion less than the company previously signalled hit sentiment, while investors weighed a massive round of fundraising that appears to be on the way, with SpaceX, Broadcom and Oracle all expected to raise billions to buy high-end AI chips.
