PSX surges more than 4,100 points amid hope for a possible regional de-escalation

Amid hope for a possible de-escalation in the Middle East, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) recorded significant gains on Wednesday, maintaining its bullish momentum.

The KSE-100 index increased 4,142.83 points, or 2.79%, during intraday trade, closing at 152,886.14 from 148,743.31 the day before.

On the international front, expectations of a de-escalation in the Iranian crisis caused equities and bonds to rise and the dollar to weaken at the beginning of the Asian trading session on Wednesday. Meanwhile, far better-than-expected GDP data for March drove a recovery in Korean and Japanese shares.

While South Korea’s Kospi (.KS11), opens new tab, increased as much as 5.5%, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside of Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS), opens new tab, was up 2.7%, ending a four-day losing run. At one time, the Nikkei 225 (.N225), opens new tab also saw a 3.9% increase after U.S. President Donald Trump stated that the United States could stop its military attacks on Iran in two to three weeks and that Tehran did not need to reach a deal in order for the crisis to end.

A day earlier, according to PSX data, the benchmark KSE-100 Index resumed its upward trend on Tuesday, rising 1,900.34 points, or 1.29 percent, to close at 148,743.32 points from 146,842.97 points on the previous trading day.

In contrast to the previous session’s 529.130 million shares valued at Rs 29.603 billion, the ready market saw a trading volume of 434.958 million shares with a traded value of Rs 22.541 billion. The market capitalization rose from Rs 16.327 trillion to Rs 16.534 trillion the previous day.

281 of the 479 active companies in the ready market advanced, 137 dropped, and 61 stayed the same.