Wednesday, Feb 25, 2026 | 07 Ramadan 1447
Wednesday, Feb 25, 2026 | 07 Ramadan 1447
Buying returned to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining over 1,400 points during the opening hours of trading on Wednesday.
At 9:30am, the benchmark index was hovering at 167,683.40, up by 1,424.86 points or 0.86%.
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, HBL, MEBL, MCB, UBL, MARI, OGDC, POL, SNGPL and WAFI, traded in the green.
In a key development, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff mission will visit Pakistan today to conduct discussions on the third review under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme and the second review under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).
The mission will begin engagements in Karachi with officials of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) before moving to Islamabad next week for talks with the government’s economic team.
On Tuesday, corrections at the PSX persisted with benchmark and sectoral indices closing lower in a volatile session marked by sharp intraday swings, heavy turnover, and continued erosion in overall market capitalisation. The benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 166,258.55 points, down 1,432.54 points or 0.85%.
Globally, Asia’s financial markets were higher on Wednesday with Korean chipmakers leading gains, as investors double down on what they see as the safest bet on artificial intelligence (AI), while the yen remained in focus.
Investors rocked by volatility in recent months were also awaiting U.S. President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday evening in Washington. Market participants are bracing for comments that could touch on policies from trade to affordability to Iran.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 1% higher in early trading.
Japan’s Nikkei set a record high. It was up 1.1% at 57,956.92 in early trade after touching an intraday peak of 58,047.89.
The broader Topix edged up 0.07% to 3,818.73.
Korea’s KOSPI was nearly 1.7%, trading above 6,000 for the first time. The index is up 44% so far this year.
This is an intra-day update
