Selling returns to bourse, KSE-100 settles 1,400 points down

Selling pressure returned to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) amid concerns over a global trade war among investors, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index closing the trading session lower by 1,400 points on Wednesday.

Negative sentiments prevailed throughout the trading session, pushing the KSE-100 to an intra-day low of 112,891.48.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 114,153.15, a decrease of 1,379.28 points or 1.19%.

“Mounting uncertainty over potential US tariff measures reverberated across global financial markets,” brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post-market report.

“In line with the negative trend witnessed in international equities, the local bourse experienced heightened volatility throughout the session,” it added.

The major drag on the index came from UBL, ENGRO, OGDC, PPL, and SYS, which collectively contributed a negative impact of 639 points, according to the report.

On Tuesday, the PSX rebounded, driven by broad-based gains across various sectors, aligning with a positive global market trend. The KSE-100 increased by 623 points or 0.54% to close at 115,532.43 points.

Global stocks take a hit

Internationally, major stocks indexes sank in Asia on Wednesday after President Donald Trump’s eye-watering 104% tariffs on China took effect, while a savage selloff in Treasuries sparked fears foreign funds were fleeing US assets.

The US dollar fell against safe-haven currencies, but the onshore yuan hovered just above the lowest level since late 2007 as Beijing allowed the currency to depreciate further amid the sharp escalation in the trade war with US.

Few assets were spared the recession fears engulfing markets, with oil prices diving almost 4%.

The pain is likely to spread to Europe too, with EUROSTOXX 50 futures pointing to a 3.7% drop upon open. Both S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures dropped 1.6%.

Overnight, Washington confirmed 104% duties on imports from China would take effect at 12:01am Eastern Time (0401 GMT), as planned. That deadline passed without new developments on trade.

The shifting headlines on tariffs and the spectre of a prolonged trade war between the world’s two biggest economies sparked sharp volatility in financial markets.

The S&P 500 was swept up in one of the biggest reversals in at least the last 50 years, with the benchmark index losing 4.2 percentage points from a positive start to a negative finish. The index has lost $5.8 trillion in stock market value, the deepest four-day loss since it was created in the 1950s.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 1.9%.

Other stock markets in Asia were also deep in the red.

Japan’s Nikkei tumbled 3.6%, after rallying 6% on Wednesday on hopes that Tokyo may get some trade deal with the US Taiwanese stocks also fell 4.6% even though the government activated a $15 billion stabilisation fund.

Analysts at JPMorgan believed the rapid escalation with US tariffs on China was disruptive enough to push the global economy into recession.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee saw slight decline against the US dollar, depreciating 0.02% in the inter-bank market on Wednesday. At close, the currency settled at 280.78, a loss of Re0.05 against the US dollar.

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 448.69 million from 530.69 million recorded in the previous close.

The value of shares declined to Rs26.58 billion from Rs33.68 billion in the previous session.

K-Electric Ltd was the volume leader with 54.55 million shares, followed by Cnergyico PK with 51.83 million shares, and PIA Holding Company with 20.46 million shares.

Shares of 450 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 118 registered an increase, 281 recorded a fall, while 51 remained unchanged.