After observing buying in the opening minutes, selling returned to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding nearly 3,200 points on Monday.
At 12:25pm, the benchmark index was hovering at 169,982.32, down 3,187.39 points or 1.84%.
Selling pressure was seen in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refinery. Index-heavy stocks, including ARL, MARI, PPL, MCB, MEBL and UBL, traded lower.
During the previous week, escalating geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran triggered a sharp risk-off reaction across global financial markets, with Pakistan’s equity benchmark suffering a pronounced correction amid heightened uncertainty and rising oil prices.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index at the PSX fell 6,434.02 points, or 3.6% week-on-week, to close at 173,169.70 points, marking one of the steepest weekly declines in recent sessions.
Globally, Wall Street futures and the dollar slid in Asia on Monday as confusion over US tariffs revived the “sell America” trade, while confidence in the entire AI sector was set to be tested by results from tech-diva Nvidia this week.
Gold gained, and oil prices eased ahead of another round of talks between the United States and Iran due in Geneva on Thursday, with the risk of US military strikes lingering if a deal is not done.
Uncertainty loomed large after the US Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs, leading him to announce a new 10% rate on the rest of the world, only to then lift it to 15% in a move that even seemed to surprise some of his own officials.
It was not yet clear when these tariffs would be imposed, what might be excluded and whether every country would be slapped with 15%. Some, including the UK and Australia, had 10% tariff rates under the former rules, while many countries in Asia had higher rates.
With so much up in the air, Asian markets were mixed, with MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan up 0.8% in light trade.
Japan’s Nikkei was shut for a holida,y but futures traded down 1.0% at 56,605 versus a cash close of 56,825.
The chance of lower tariffs helped South Korea extend its bull run with a 1.2% rise, having already jumped 5.5% last week to all-time highs. Taiwan followed with a rise of 1.2% to a record peak.
This is an intra-day update
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