Buying momentum continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index climbing more than 1,750 points in early trading.
Buying was seen in automobile, cement, chemical, banking, fertiliser, pharma, tech, and OMC sectors.
At 10:15am, the KSE-100 Index was hovering at 186,813.16, up by 1755.33 points or 0.95%.
On Monday, the PSX witnessed volatile trading, as the KSE-100 swayed in both directions before closing the day higher by nearly 900 points. At close, the benchmark index settled at 185,057.83, up by 883.35 points or 0.48%.
The stock market did not react negative to the news that US President Donald Trump had agreed on a trade deal with India that slashed US tariffs on Indian goods to 18% – 1% lower than Pakistan’s 19% – from previously 50% in exchange for New Delhi lowering trade barriers, stopping its purchases of Russian oil and buying oil instead from the US and potentially Venezuela.
Internationally, gold and Asian stocks were on the rebound on Tuesday as trade took a calmer tone after wild swings in metals markets, with the mood helped overnight by a sharp jump in US factory activity.
Japan’s Nikkei jumped 2.5% to recoup Monday losses and South Korea’s KOSPI rose 4%.
Futures pointed to a recovery in Hong Kong while S&P 500 futures were up 0.3% with traders eyeing a busy few sessions of earnings.
Investors were looking ahead to a central bank meeting in Australia later on Tuesday, where a strong jobs market and an unexpectedly hot fourth-quarter inflation reading have the market betting on a 25 basis point rate hike.
Australian shares were up 1.3% in early trade and the Aussie dollar , which has been bumpy but logged its largest monthly rise in three years in January, was firm at $0.6958.
Gold, silver, stocks and the dollar have all whipsawed since US President Donald Trump’s nomination of Kevin Warsh to lead the Federal Reserve sent metal prices tumbling.
Gold was up 3% in the Asia morning to $4,800 an ounce, a bounce of nearly 9% from Monday lows. Silver traded 5% higher to $83.34 an ounce.
Warsh is seen shrinking the Fed’s balance sheet, pushing up bond yields, which is negative for precious metals that pay no income.
