Bullish momentum was observed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining over 500 points during the opening minutes of trading on Monday.
At 10:25am, the benchmark index was hovering at 158,570.89, an increase of 533.52 points or 0.34%.
Buying momentum was observed in key sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refinery. Index-heavy stocks including HUBCO, MARI, OGDC, POL, MCB and NBP, traded in the green.
An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team is set to visit Pakistan on September 25, 2025, for the second semi-annual review of the $7-billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF), with the country expected to meet all seven Quantitative Performance Criteria (QPC) for the March and June 2025 quarters, including net international reserves and SWAP positions, said Topline Securities in its report on Saturday.
During the previous week, the PSX sustained its bullish momentum, with the benchmark KSE-100 index surging 3,597.68 points, or 2.3%, to settle at 158,037.37 points compared to 154,439.69 points a week earlier.
The index touched a weekly high of 159,337 points, marking one of the strongest rallies of the year as investor confidence was buoyed by a combination of domestic and external triggers.
Internationally, Asian stocks drifted higher and the dollar steadied on Monday, with markets weighing the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy path after a rate cut last week, while President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown on worker visas kept sentiment in check.
India’s benchmark index slipped after the Trump administration said on Friday it would ask companies to pay $100,000 for new H-1B worker visas, a blow to the tech sector that relies on skilled workers from India and China.
US stock futures eased, with the S&P futures down 0.1%, while European futures indicated a subdued open.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.1% higher. Tokyo’s Nikkei rose 1.3% and Taiwan stocks gained more than 1% to a record high.
India’s $283 billion information technology sector, which gets more than half of its revenue from the US, will likely feel the pain in the near term amid souring ties between India and the United States.
This is an intra-day update
