Stocks surge, KSE-100 gains nearly 900 points ahead of MPC

Bullish momentum was observed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining nearly 900 points during the opening minutes of trading on Monday.

At 9:40am, the benchmark index was hovering at 170,738.36, an increase of 873.84 points or 0.51%.

Buying was observed in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and power generation. Index-heavy stocks, including KE, OGDC, POL, PPL, PSO, SNGPL, SSGC, HBL, MEBL, NBP and UBL, traded in the green.

Leading economists of the country are pessimistic about a policy rate cut, while saying that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is unlikely to loosen monetary conditions in its upcoming Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting scheduled for Monday, largely due to International Monetary Fund (IMF) pressure to keep the rate “appropriately tight.”

During the previous week, PSX closed on a strongly bullish note, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index surging to a new all-time high of 169,864.53 points, marking a week-on-week gain of 1.7%, as improving macroeconomic indicators and renewed investor confidence fuelled broad-based buying.

Globally, Asian stocks tumbled in early trading on Monday as investors reined in risk-taking at the start of a week sprinkled with key central bank decisions and data releases.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 1%, led by a drop of as much as 2.7% in South Korean shares, one of the world’s best-performing markets this year.

S&P 500 e-mini futures were up 0.3%, while the yield on the US 10-year Treasury bond was last down 1.2 basis points at 4.182% as investors awaited a string of economic data releases and a slew of decisions from central banks.

Among the central banks making decisions this week, the Bank of Japan is expected to hike rates by 25 basis points to 0.75%, while the Bank of England may make an equal-sized cut to 3.75%. The European Central Bank is expected to keep interest rates on hold, alongside Sweden’s Riksbank and Norway’s Norges Bank.

Investors will also have the chance to catch up on economic data that was delayed by the US government shutdown, including the jobs report for November and the monthly consumer price index.

In Japan, stocks fell despite getting a lift after the BOJ’s closely watched “tankan” survey showed on Monday that big manufacturers’ business sentiment hit a four-year high, suggesting the economy was weathering the hit from higher US tariffs. The Nikkei 225 was last 1.4% lower.

This is an intra-day update