A day after witnessing the biggest single-day decline of over 3,500 points, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) rebounded strongly with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining nearly 3,000 points during the opening hours of trading on Wednesday.
At 9:50am, the benchmark index was hovering at 97,507.31, an increase of 2,933.15 points or 3.10%.
Massive buying was witnessed at the bourse with the index-heavy banking sector leading the rally alongside other sectors including automobile assemblers, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and power generation.
Index-heavy stocks including HBL, NBP, MCB, OGDC, SSGC and HUBCO traded in the green territory.
The positive sentiment was a complete turnaround from Tuesday’s bloodbath, as the benchmark KSE-100 Index witnessed the biggest single-day decline, plunging by over 3,500 points settling at 94,574, with investors viewing Islamabad’s situation as worsening after the Pakistan Army was called in to stop the protest from becoming more violent.
However, optimism returned following decisive overnight actions by law enforcement.
The police and Rangers on Tuesday cleared Blue Area as well as the D-Chowk after launching a late night crackdown on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) protesters headed by Bushra Bibi, the wife of Imran Khan and Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Gandapur.
“Pakistan stocks recover at opening after the opposition protest gets over last night,” said Mohammed Sohail, CEO of Topline Securities, in a note.
Adding to the positive momentum, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Tuesday removed the Minimum Profit Rate (MPR) requirement for all conventional banks on deposits from financial institutions, public sector enterprises, and public limited companies.
The central bank also directed Islamic Banking Institutions (IBIs) to pay at least 75% of the weighted average gross yield from their investment pools as profit on PKR savings deposits.
This is an intra-day update
Source: Brecorder
