Buying rally continues, KSE-100 crosses 170,000 level in early trade

Bullish momentum was observed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index crossing the 170,000 level during the opening minutes of trading on Wednesday. At 9:40am, the benchmark index was hovering at 170,171.82, an increase of 715.44 points or 0.42%. Buying interest was observed in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refinery. Index-heavy stocks, including HUBCO, MARI, OGDC, POL, PPL, HBL and UBL, traded in the green. Analysts attributed the positivity to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) board clearance, which unlocks about $1.2 billion for Pakistan under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).