Bulls make further inroads at PSX, KSE-100 up 1,600 points

There was no stopping the bulls at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining over 1, 600 points during the opening hours of trading on Thursday. At 11: 35am, the benchmark index was hovering at 185, 707. 10, up by 1, 657. 00 points or 0. 90%. Buying interest was observed in key sectors, including commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies and power generation. Index-heavy stocks, including HUBCO, OGDC, POL, PPL, HBL, MEBL and UBL, traded in the green. On Wednesday, PSX opened fiscal year 2026-27 on a highly bullish note as investors cheered a softer inflation outlook, declining international oil prices and mounting expectations of an imminent interest rate cut by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). The benchmark KSE-100 Index surged 3, 748. 40 points, or 2. 08%, to settle at a record 184, 050. 10 points. Globally, Asian shares skidded on Thursday as investors rotated out of chipmakers following a stellar quarter, while currency and ​bond markets braced for US jobs data that could give hints about the risk of interest rate hikes. Oil prices hit ‌new four-month lows, with Brent crude off 0. 8% to $71 a barrel, as U. S. President Donald Trump said talks with Iran had gone well in Qatar, and as more oil tankers transited through the Strait of Hormuz. On Thursday, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0. 8%, while Japan’s Nikkei also dropped 1. 1%, adding to losses ​from the first day of the quarter. South Korea’s KOSPI sank 2. 7%, extending a 2% slide from Wednesday. That followed an eye-watering 68% ​surge in the second quarter on soaring AI-related demand for memory chips. SK Hynix plunged 7. 7%, and Samsung tumbled ⁠6. 2%. That followed a report that Meta Platforms is building a cloud business to sell excess AI computing capacity, which sent the Facebook owner’s ​shares up 8. 8% overnight. This is an intraday update

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