PSX: Buying interest returns, KSE-100 up 900 points

Buying interest returned to the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday, lifting the benchmark KSE-100 by more than 900 points within the first minutes of trading. At 9:50am the index stood at 177,771.47, a gain of 925.11 points or 0.52 percent. Business Recorder said buying was seen in sectors including automakers, cement, banks, exploration firms, oil marketing companies and power producers.

Pakistan had made a formal request to the United States for a $10 billion Exchange Stabilisation Support Facility, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb confirmed on Wednesday. He described the initiative as a step to firm up foreign exchange stability and send a constructive message to global capital markets, instead of a standard loan or credit line. Wednesday's session ended with the KSE-100 down 1,109.15 points at 176,846.36, a 0.62 percent decline, after reports of talks on lowering diesel prices between the petroleum ministry and refineries pushed energy stocks lower.

Overseas, the US Treasury said it would expand buybacks of longer-dated government debt after yields rose sharply, with the 30-year yield reaching a peak not seen since 2007 earlier this week. That steadied global bonds, weakened the dollar and lifted equities, with the MSCI Asia-Pacific index excluding Japan and Japan's Nikkei each up 1.2 percent.