Records continued to tumble at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as the benchmark KSE-100 settled above the 142,000 level for the first time in history on Monday.
Bullish momentum persisted throughout the trading session, pushing the KSE-100 to an intra-day high of 142,323.34.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 142,052.64, up by 1,017.66 points or 0.72%.
Analysts attributed the buying rally to investor optimism after the US and Pakistan struck a trade deal that will result in lower tariffs for the South Asian nation.
Investors have welcomed this development, terming it a new turning point for Pakistan’s economy.
During the previous week, the PSX capped off a historic week, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index closing at an all-time high of 141,035 points, up 1.3% on a weekly basis.
The index also touched a new intraday record of 141,161 points, underscoring a remarkable reversal in market sentiment that was largely driven by an unexpected breakthrough in trade relations with the United States and renewed investor confidence in Pakistan’s macroeconomic trajectory.
Internationally, Asian share markets followed Wall Street lower on Monday as fears for the US economy returned with a vengeance, spurring investors to price in an almost certain rate cut for September and undermining the dollar.
Some early resilience in US stock futures and a continued retreat in oil prices did help limit the losses, but the bleak message from the July payrolls report was hard to ignore.
Not only had revisions meant payrolls were 290,000 below where investors had thought they would be, but the three-month average slowed to just 35,000 from 231,000 at the start of the year.
Neither did the reaction of President Donald Trump instil confidence, as the firing of the head of Labor Statistics threatened to undermine confidence in US economic data.
Likewise, news that Trump would get to fill a governorship position at the Federal Reserve early added to worries about the politicisation of interest rate policy.
The prospect of lower borrowing costs offered some support for equities and S&P 500 futures inched up 0.1%, while Nasdaq futures rose 0.2%.
Asian share markets, however, were still catching up with Friday’s retreat, and the Nikkei fell 2.1%, while South Korea dipped 0.2%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan broke the mould and firmed 0.3%.
