KARACHI: The Pakis­tan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed sharp volatility on Tuesday, but last-hour value-hunting helped the benchmark KSE-100 index close in the green for a second consecutive session.

Market nervousness stemmed from a fragile US-Iran ceasefire following a day of clashes involving shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and missile strikes targeting the UAE.

Topline Securities Ltd said the benchmark index saw a mixed and volatile session, touching an intraday low of 1,415 points and a high of 971 points, before settling at 164,742.47, up 793.53 points or 0.48 per cent), amid persistent uncertainty over US-Iran developments.

Index-heavy stocks, including Hub Power, United Bank, Lucky Cement, Indus Motor and Kohinoor Textile Mills, remained under selling pressure, collectively dragging the index down by 167 points.

Late-buying offsets geopolitical jitters

Investor participation weakened sharply, with total trading volume plunging 34.94pc to 453 million shares and traded value declining 34.73pc to Rs22.7 billion. Bank of Punjab led the volume chart with 45 million shares.

According to Arif Habib Ltd, the market opened with a gap down, marking the day’s low, before rallying steadily to close near its intraday highs in a constructive session.

On the economic front, Pakistan’s trade deficit widened more than expected as imports rose 7.46pc year-on-year and 28.41pc month-on-month to $6.55bn in April. During 10MFY26, the import bill grew 6.94pc to $57.19bn from $53.48bn in the corresponding period last year.

The trade deficit increased 3.82pc to $4.07bn in April from $3.92bn a year earlier. Over July-April 2025-26, it expanded 20.28pc to $31.98bn from $26.59bn a year ago.

Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar was informed by the petroleum ministry that the country has sufficient reserves of petrol, oil and lubricants (POL) until the third week of June.

Total cement despatches rose 11.14pc year-on-year to 3.89 million tonnes in April. Local despatches stood at 3.217m tonnes, up from 2.677m tonnes in the same month last year, reflecting an increase of 20.17pc. However, exports fell 18.22pc from 823,032 tonnes in April 2025 to 673,058 tonnes this year. During 10MFY26, total cement despatches (domestic and exports) reached 42.396m tonnes, up 9.83pc from 38.600m tonnes a year earlier.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2026