Pakistan stock market witnessed a freefall after the opening of Monday session and the PSX had to trigger another market halt. It was fourth market halt during last few days due to panic selling on investor concerns over coronavirus spread. Trading at the stock market remained suspended for 45 minutes.

"The index marked the 4th halt since last week and since the circuit breakers moved up, the downside came with KSE-30 dropping 5 percent," an analyst at Arif Habib Limited said. The KSE-100 Index sustained a loss of 1,651 points at the time of the market halt, but continued the downtrend ultimately posting a total loss of 2,442 points during the session and registering a small recovery at close.

Fears of coronavirus spread has also caused significant damage to investor sentiment and generally investors were seen on the sidelines. Index heavyweights in banking, cement, fertilizer, E&P sectors were seen at or near lower circuits.