Pakistan stock exchange plunges over 8,000 points, trading gets halted briefly

Pakistan stock exchange plunges over 8,000 points

Trading was suspended at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) for an hour as the benchmark KSE-100 index plummeted by more than 8,000 points on Monday, triggered by the imposition of sweeping tariffs by the US.

Financial analysts blamed the fear of a global recession for the massive fall in the stock exchange.

Even after a cooling period of one hour, the PSX lost another 2,000 points when trading resumed, resulting in a record 8,600 points drop in intraday trade.

The index closed at 114,909.48, down by 3,882.18 or 3.27 per cent, from the last close.  Uzma Khan, financial analyst at Arif Habib Securities, said the automatic circuit breakers are designed to prevent panic selling and provide investors time to reassess during extreme market volatility.

She said that investors are worried about a global recession due to the tariff hikes by the United States and retaliatory measures from other global economies.

The benchmark KSE-100 index initially declined by 6,287.22 points, or 5.29 per cent by 11:58 am, before trading was halted. Shortly after reopening, it declined by a cumulative 8,687.69, or 7.31 per cent, from the last close to stand at 110,103.97 at 1:15 pm.

At 2:02 pm, the index stood at 113,154.63, down by 5,637.03 or 4.75 per cent from the last close.