Intra-day update: KSE-100 jumps on MSCI additions

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed bullish momentum in the opening hours of trading on Friday with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining nearly 1,100 points to hit a high of 48,898.82. At around 11:30pm, the KSE-100 had retreated to around the 48,377.84 level, still an increase of 569.5 points. After the mid-session break, the KSE-100 gained further, and was hovering around 48,476.64, a gain of 668.3 points or 1.4%, at 3:35pm. The increase was in contrast to Thursday when the KSE-100 closed lower by over 400 points, as investors opted to remain on the sidelines amid no progress on the government’s circular debt plan. However, renewed interest was seen on Friday over the MSCI quarterly review update. Read about the MSCI update here Experts attributed the momentum to the inclusion of Pakistani companies. “Pakistan market rallied 1,000 points in early morning trade after MSCI added record Pakistan listed companies in its indices,” said Mohammed Sohail, CEO Topline Securities, in a note. The KSE-100 Index has seen massive buying interest since the staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and gained over 17%. This is an intra-day update