Overview
- By 9:35 a.m. Wednesday, the KSE-100 was up 718 points at 182,871, with buying interest across banks, energy, cement and fertiliser.
- The bounce followed a sharp 1,789-point drop on Monday to 182,340 and a further 187-point slip on Tuesday to 182,154, leaving trade volatile and range-bound.
- Sustained institutional selling and the settlement-cycle transition were flagged as key pressures, with OGDC, MEBL, PPL, UBL and LUCK together erasing about 932 points on Monday.
- January CPI printed at 5.8%, keeping real rates positive, while remittances reached $3.46 billion for the month as the central bank cautioned on lingering vulnerabilities.
- FX relief included a one-month rollover of a $2 billion UAE loan and a request to extend a $1.2 billion Saudi oil facility, while volumes concentrated in K-Electric signaled narrow market breadth.