Buying rally continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) after US President Donald Trump again asserted the war with Iran will end “very quickly”, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining over 500 points during the opening minutes of trading on Wednesday.

At 9:30am, the benchmark index was hovering at 163,459.05, a gain of 562.37 points or 0.35%.

Buying was observed in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies and power generation. Index-heavy stocks, including HUBCO, MARI, PPL, FFC and EFERT, traded in the green.

On Tuesday, PSX staged a strong rebound as easing geopolitical concerns surrounding the United States-Iran negotiations and a slight retreat in international oil prices restored investor confidence, helping the market recover a portion of recent losses. The benchmark index gained 1,091.66 points, or 0.67%, to close at 162,896.68 points.

Internationally, Asian stocks fell for a fourth straight session on Wednesday as war-driven ​inflation fears hammered bonds, while investors awaited earnings from Nvidia to see whether the world’s most valuable ‌company might help markets navigate higher borrowing costs.

The sell-off in global bond markets persisted overnight as investors ramped up bets that the Federal Reserve may need to increase interest rates this year. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield hit a 16-month high of 4.687% overnight, while the 30-year yield climbed to ​5.198%, levels not seen since 2007.

Oil prices slipped a little on Wednesday, with Brent crude futures off 0.2%, but ​stayed above $110 a barrel at $111.07.

In Beijing, Chinese leader Xi Jinping will host his “old friend” Russian President Vladimir Putin, less than a ​week after Trump’s high-profile visit.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.7% on Wednesday, while Japan’s Nikkei dropped 1.6%. South Korea’s KOSPI was down 2%.

Chinese blue-chips slipped 0.4%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index eased 0.7%.

This is an intraday update