Selling pressure was observed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding over 500 points during the opening minutes of trading on Wednesday.
At 9:40am, the benchmark index was hovering at 170,499.45, down by 522.32 points or 0.31%.
Selling was observed in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, fertilizer, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refinery. Index-heavy stocks, including MARI, PSO, HUBCO, POL, MCB, MEBL and NBP, traded in the red.
In a key development, it was learnt on Tuesday that the federal government will present its budget for the financial year 2026-27 on June 10. This was stated by senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and Member of the National Assembly (MNA), Tahira Aurangzeb.
On Tuesday, PSX closed modestly higher as improved investor sentiment, supported by declining international oil prices and encouraged select buying in key sectors, helped the benchmark index recover part of the losses recorded in the previous session.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index gained 421.57 points, or 0.25%, to close at 171,021.77 points.
Globally, S&P 500 futures were flat and European futures slipped 0.1%, although the AI bull run pushed on unimpeded in Asia on Wednesday, where stock indexes climbed to record highs in Taiwan and Japan. South Korean markets were closed.
The US military said Iranian missile attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait and other regional targets were either thwarted or failed as diplomacy between Washington and Tehran made little headway.
Iran and the United States said last week that they had reached a tentative deal to halt the war, but the two sides have yet to sign off on anything.
SpaceX plans to raise $75 billion in a blockbuster initial public offering, according to a source familiar with the matter.
In the tech space, the artificial intelligence theme seems impervious to war worries, and Wall Street stock indexes eked out small gains on Tuesday, led by AI.
Shares in Marvell Technology soared 32.5% to a record high after Nvidia boss Jensen Huang called the chipmaker the next trillion-dollar company.
AI gains have lifted tech investor SoftBank above Toyota as Japan’s most valuable company, and on Wednesday, memory manufacturer Kioxia briefly pushed the carmaker, which topped the list for decades, into third place.
