PSX tumbles over 2,200 points on coronavirus fears

By Muhammad YaseenPublished On 06 Jan 2023

KARACHI: Selling pressure at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued to mount a the benchmark KSE-100 Index lost the 34,000 points mark as well. With this, the index lost over 2,200 points in intra-day trading to hover at a four-month low

Investors have restored to panic selling following the coronavirus pandemic that has shattered the world, including Pakistan.

At 12:14 pm, the KSE-100 index – a benchmark for market performance – was down 1,974.47 points or 5.48% to stand at 34,086.41.

PSX had halted trading for 45 minutes at around 10:12 am.

The halt triggered automatically after the PSX second benchmark KSE-30 Index fell 5% and failed to shrink the losses over the next five consecutive minutes.

The previous three halts had come into play at 4% as per the previous laws.

At the time of the halt, the main benchmark index was down 4.58%, or 1,651 points.

“So Pakistan stock market is also in a bear run. It is down 20% in 2 months,” said Topline Securities CEO Muhammad Sohail in a short comment.

On the other hand, world equity markets and the dollar were roiled after the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates in an emergency move and its major peers offered cheap US dollars to ease a ruinous logjam in global lending markets.

The Bank of Japan was holding an emergency meeting of its own to discuss new stimulus measures, though options are limited given rates are already negative.

The drastic maneuvers were aimed at cushioning the economic impact as the breakneck spread of the coronavirus all but shut down more countries, though they had only limited success in calming panicky investors.