PSX plunges amid global selloff, Trump’s tariff plan fuels recession fears

KARACHI: After resisting in the last few sessions, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a brutal day as the market mirrored the global sell-off, opening on a sharply negative note and experiencing a relentless selling throughout the day, analysts said.

In response to the extreme volatility, trading was temporarily halted one an hour, triggered by the KSE-30 Index falling more than 5% for five consecutive minutes, activating the market’s circuit breaker mechanism.

The benchmark index nosedived to an intraday low of 8,687 points, registering the largest intraday point-wise drop in PSX history. It was not the steepest in percentage terms. The most severe single-session percentage fall was the 12.4% drop on June 1, 1998, Topline Securities note stated. 

The session eventually closed at 114,909 points down by 3,882 points or (-3.27%), after some stability returned during the late hours as value hunters stepped in, helping index to recover.

“Pakistan Stocks plunge amid rout in global equities after Trump showed no sign of backing down from US tariff plan, mounting risk of global recession,” Ahsan Mehanti CEO at Arif Habib Commodities told Hum News English.

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Late session retreat witnessed government hopes to negotiate on US tariffs, PM announced industrial power tariff cut and upbeat CPI inflation data stood at 0.7% YoY in March 25, likely to further ease SBP policy next month, Mehanti added.

The Oil and Gas Exploration sector led the decline, contributing 766 points to the index. Other sectors, including Commercial Banks, Fertilizer, and Cement, also contributed significantly to the downturn, with 582, 314, and 230 points respectively, said Muhammad Rizwan Khan, Director Brokerage at Chase Securities.

The decline in oil prices was a major factor in the sector’s downturn, as investors anticipated potential downward revisions in E&P earnings. Pressure was also observed in the Refinery and OMC sectors, with investors losses in upcoming results.

Some investors reduced their open positions to control losses, and we also observed some institutional sell-offs across the market, which resultantly pushed the market to a low level of 110,104 index, Chase Securities stated.

Total market participants remained robust, with a traded volume of 702 million shares and a traded value of Rs42.7 billion.