KSE-100 gains over 5,000 points amid war de-escalation hopes

Bulls roared back at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) amid hopes of a de-escalation in the Iran-US war, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining over 5,000 points during the trading session on Wednesday. At 10:55am, the benchmark index was hovering at 153,764.13, up by 5,020.82 points or 3.38%. Buying momentum 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 HBL, MCB, MEBL, UBL, MARI, OGDC, PPL, POL, PSO, HUBCO and ARL, traded in the green. On Tuesday, PSX witnessed a strong recovery as fresh institutional and retail buying helped the benchmark indices rebound sharply after consecutive sessions of losses, with investor sentiment improving on the back of positive macroeconomic signals and supportive corporate developments.