Trading resumes at PSX as KSE-100 loses 6000 points in bloodbath

KARACHI: Trading resumed at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) after a brief halt as the KSE-100 index witnessed a bloodbath on Monday, shedding more than 6,000 points during intra-day trade.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) sank to an intraday low of 112,504.44 points, plunging 6287.22 points, a negative change of 5.29 percent, as compared to 118,791.66 points on the last trading day.

Analysts called it a massacre at the PSX, marking the biggest point-wise drop in history.

They said that the KSE-100 Index experienced an unprecedented collapse, plummeting by 6287.22 points in a single trading session, marking the steepest point-wise decline in its history.

Heavy selling pressure was observed in key sectors, including cement, fertilizer, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, power generation and refinery.

Index-heavy stocks, including WTL, CNERGY, SSGC, PIBTL, BOP, MLCF, and PAEL traded in the red.

The decline was fuelled by Trump’s tariffs trade war as Asian equities collapsed on a black Monday for markets after China hammered the United States with its own hefty tariffs, ramping up a trade war many fear could spark a recession.

Trading floors were overcome by a wave of selling as investors fled to the hills on the worst day for equities since the pandemic, with Hong Kong shedding 10 percent, Tokyo briefly diving eight percent and Taipei more than nine percent.

Futures for Wall Street’s markets were also taking another drubbing, while concerns about the impact on demand also saw commodities slump.

Donald Trump sparked a market meltdown last week when he unveiled sweeping tariffs against US trading partners for what he says was years of being ripped off and claimed that governments were lining up to cut deals with Washington.

But after Asian markets closed on Friday, China said it would impose retaliatory levies of 34 percent on all US goods from April 10.

No sector spared

The selling in Asia was across the board, with no sector unharmed by the savage selling — tech firms, car makers, banks, casinos and energy firms all felt the pain as investors abandoned riskier assets.

Among the biggest losers, Chinese ecommerce titans Alibaba tanked more than 14 percent and rival JD.com shed 13 percent, while Japanese tech investment giant SoftBank dived more than 10 percent and Sony gave up 9.6 percent.

Shanghai shed more than six percent and Singapore eight percent, while Seoul gave up more than five percent triggering a so-called sidecar mechanism — for the first time in eight months — that briefly halted some trading.