Friday, Jan 02, 2026 | 12 Rajab 1447
Friday, Jan 02, 2026 | 12 Rajab 1447
There was no stopping the bulls at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index etching new records, hitting the 177,000 level for the first time during the opening minutes of trading on Friday.
At 9:20am, the benchmark index was hovering at 176,958.07, an increase of 602.58 points or 0.34%.
Buying interest was observed in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refinery. Index-heavy stocks, including HUBCO, ARL, MARI, OGDC, PPL, POL, PSO, HBL, NBP and UBL, traded in the green.
Pakistan’s headline inflation clocked in at 5.6% on a year-on-year (YoY) basis in December 2025, showed Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data, a reading in line with the Ministry of Finance estimate of 5.5-6.5%.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s total liquid foreign exchange reserves stood at $21.012 billion as of December 26, 2025, showing a marginal decline from $21.023 billion recorded a week earlier on December 19, according to statistics released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
On Thursday, PSX kicked off 2026 with a resounding surge, as broad-based buying drove all major indices higher, marking a confident and bullish start to the New Year. The benchmark KSE-100 Index registered a sharp gain of 2,301.17 points, or 1.32%, to close at 176,355.49 points.
Internationally, stocks began 2026 on a positive note in holiday-thinned trade as investors braced for a year set to test the AI-led rally, usher in a change of guard at the Federal Reserve and potentially more market turbulence under Donald Trump’s presidency.
Moves across asset classes were muted with momentum in early trade carrying over from a year-end rally, while liquidity remained low due to the holidays. Markets in Japan and China were closed in Asia, while others returned from the New Year festivities.
Elsewhere, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.66% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 1.24%.
S&P 500 futures rose 0.29%, while Nasdaq futures added 0.36%.
European futures were mixed, with EUROSTOXX 50 futures down 0.5% and FTSE futures rising 0.1%.
This is an intra-day update
