The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed selling pressure on Monday, as its benchmark KSE-100 Index closed lower by over 1,500 points, following a worldwide sell-off sparked after US President Donald Trump announced tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China.
The KSE-100 started the week’s first session with some buying, hitting an intra-day high of 114,620.79.
However, the latter hours witnessed strong selling that pushed the index to an intra-day low of 112,681.34.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 112,745.01, down by 1,510.72 points or 1.32%.
“The KSE-100 Index mirrored the trend in global markets today, reacting negatively to the news that US President Donald Trump had ordered sweeping tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada, and China,” said brokerage house Topline Securities in its post-market report.
“This announcement created a ripple effect in international markets, and the local market followed suit.”
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Key contributors to the index’s negative performance included ENGROH, MARI, FFC, SYS, and PPL, which collectively accounted for a loss of 769 points, Topline report stated.
Meanwhile, another brokerage house Intermarket Securities said the market would be watchful Pakistan politics, especially the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) calling for a rally by February 8.
“Global markets are under pressure, but that will have no impact on the Pakistan market, which has been driven mostly by domestic liquidity. We advise profit taking on higher levels; however, energy stocks have been under pressure lately and could be offering attractive levels,” it said.
Last week, the PSX remained under pressure as the investors opted to offload their holdings on available margins. The benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 624.76 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 114,255.73 points.
Internationally, Chinese stocks listed in Hong Kong slid on Monday and the yuan sank to a record low in offshore trade on their return from the Lunar New Year holidays, as fears of a trade war heightened after US President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs.
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index lost 1.8% in early trade, and the Hang Seng Tech Index tumbled 2.5%, the biggest drop in more than two months.
Hong Kong’s benchmark index lost 2.1% to a one-week low.
Hong Kong’s markets reopened on Monday while those on the Chinese mainland resume trade on Wednesday.
The offshore yuan weakened to 7.3512 against the dollar, having earlier pushed to a record low of 7.3765 yuan.
Trump slapped China with a 10% levy at the weekend as he had threatened last month, calling the measures necessary to combat illegal immigration and the drug trade.
Meanwhile, major stock markets in the Gulf also fell in early trade on Monday in line with Asian shares.
Saudi Arabia’s benchmark index dropped 0.5% on Tuesday, hit by a 1% fall in ACWA Power Company and a 3% drop in Elm Company.
Dubai’s main share index lost 0.7%, with blue-chip developer Emaar Properties declining 1.1% and top lender Emirates NBD retreating 1.2%.
In Abu Dhabi, the index was down 0.5%.
The Qatari benchmark fell 0.9%, weighed down by a 3.4% slide in petrochemical maker Industries Qatar on lower fourth-quarter profit.
The Pakistani rupee registered a marginal decline against the US dollar, depreciating 0.03% in the inter-bank market on Monday. At close, the currency settled at 279.04 for a loss of Re0.09 against the greenback, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
Volume on the all-share index decreased to 401.46 million from 543.12 million on Monday.
The value of shares declined to Rs20.35 billion from Rs27.97 billion in the previous session.
WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 26.26 million shares, followed by B.O.Punjab with 24.69 million shares, and Ghani Chemical with 22 million shares.
Shares of 450 companies were traded on Monday, of which 137 registered an increase, 262 recorded a fall, while 51 remained unchanged.
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