Business Recorder
Buying returned at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as investors seek comfort over US President Donald Trump’s decision to pause a planned attack on Iran, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining over 2,300 points during the opening minutes of trading on Tuesday. At 9:35am, the benchmark index was hovering at 164,162.04, up by 2,357.02 points or 1.46%. Buying interest was observed in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and power generation. Index-heavy stocks, including ARL, HUBCO, MARI, OGDC, PPL, POL, MEBL and UBL, traded in the green. On Monday , PSX came under heavy selling pressure as investor sentiment remained fragile amid the absence of meaningful progress in ongoing United States-Iran negotiations, persistent geopolitical uncertainty and elevated international crude oil prices. The benchmark KSE-100 Index lost 3,791.05 points, or 2.29%, to close at 161,805.02 points. Internationally, Asian shares wobbled on Tuesday while bonds found their footing following a steep selloff after Trump decided to pause a planned attack on Iran and his claim that there was a good chance of a nuclear deal sent oil prices lower. Trump said on Monday he had paused a planned attack against Iran to allow for negotiations to take place on a deal to end the war, after Tehran sent a new peace proposal to Washington. He subsequently said there was a “very good chance” the U.S. could reach an agreement with Iran to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Still, investors remained cautious after being rattled in the previous session by a weekend drone strike in the United Arab Emirates. Brent crude futures fell more than 2% to $109.41 a barrel on the back of Trump’s comments, while U.S. crude was down 1.3% to $107.25 per barrel, though both remained more than 50% above their pre-war levels. In share markets, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.22%, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 1%. South Korea’s Kospi fell 2%. Nasdaq futures reversed early gains to trade 0.07% lower, while S&P 500 futures lost 0.03%. In Europe, EUROSTOXX 50 futures rose 0.4%, while FTSE futures and DAX futures edged 0.3% and 0.4% higher, respectively. This is an intraday update
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