KSE-100 gains 1,900 points day after war-driven meltdown

The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s benchmark index climbed by 1,900.34 points on Tuesday after witnessing a meltdown a day earlier.

The KSE-100 index climbed by 1,900.34 points, or 1.29 per cent, to close at 148,743.31 from the previous close of 146,842.97.

The index saw an intraday low of 147,743.67 points at around 9:30am. However, it then rose to an intraday high of 150,225.63 points at around 2:20pm, before settling at 146,842.97.

On Monday, PSX came under extreme selling pressure, dragging the KSE-100 index below the 145,­000 mil­estone intraday.

The benchmark KSE-100 index remained in negative territory from the beginning of trade, hitting an intraday low of 144,656.97, a sharp decline of 7,050.55. It then closed 4,864.54 points lower than the previous session.

Ali Najib, Deputy Head of Trading at Arif Habib Ltd (AHL), said that since February 9, it has been the seventh consecutive Monday, excluding March 23, during which the market experienced significant sell-offs, mostly driven by adverse geopolitical developments.

Investor participation stayed cautious, keeping overall momentum fragile and contributing to incr­eased volatility, he added.

However, last week brought positive news as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reached a Staff-Level Agreement with Pakistan for the release of due tranches under the two progra­mmes.