Buying was witnessed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) led by investors’ optimism amid the ongoing Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, as the benchmark KSE-100 Index gained over 600 points during the intra-day trading on Wednesday.

At 12:20pm, the benchmark index was hovering at 86,462.60 level, an increase of 622.26 points or 0.72%.

Buying was witnessed in key sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, chemical, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies and OMCs. Index-heavy stocks including OGDC, PPL, PSO, HUBCO and HBL traded in green.

The two-day meeting of the Council of the Heads of Government (CHG) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states kicked off on Tuesday.

As many as seven prime ministers — a vice president, a foreign minister, among other senior leaders, are attending the event.

India’s Minister for External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar also arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday to attend the summit, making first such visit of any Indian official to Pakistan in nearly a decade.

On Tuesday, the KSE-100 had settled at 85,840.34, up by 578.96 points or 0.68%.

Globally, Asian equities fell on Wednesday after disappointing earnings from Europe’s biggest tech firm ASML dragged chip stocks around the world, while expectations that the Federal Reserve will take a modest rate cut path propped up the dollar.

Also weighing on the market was lacklustre earnings from French luxury giant LVMH that showed demand in China for luxury goods worsened, denting some of the enthusiasm around China spurred by stimulus measures.

Tech-heavy South Korean stocks fell 0.6%, while chip stocks led Japan’s Nikkei 1.8% lower. Taiwan stocks slipped 1.2%. That left MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down 0.32%.

This is an intra-day update