Pakistan’s stock market witnessed a sharp crash on Monday, with the benchmark KSE-30 Index plunging nearly 10% during early trade, according to Bloomberg. This marks the biggest single-day drop in the country’s stock market history. Amid the steep fall, trading on the Karachi Stock Exchange was temporarily suspended for one hour to curb panic selling. The crash comes in the wake of the United States and Israel launching strikes on Iran, triggering a global sell-off across equity markets. The index had closed the previous session at 168,062.17 points. However, in early trade on Monday, it tumbled to as low as 152,916.77 points. As of 11:30 am IST, the KSE-30 was trading at 157,690.93 points, down 10,371.24 points or 6.17%.
Previous Decline
The fall follows a decline seen on Friday as well, when the KSE-100 Index dropped around 2%. The decline was attributed to border clashes with Afghanistan. At the time, the index had fallen by 3,081 points, or 1.82%, to 165,811.88 before recovering later in the session to close at 168,062.17 points.
Indian Markets Also Under Pressure
The impact of escalating tensions in the Middle East was also felt in India. Following the US and Israeli strikes on Iran, domestic markets opened sharply lower on Monday. At 9:15 am, the BSE Sensex fell 914.15 points to 80,373.04. At the same time, the NSE Nifty declined 246.40 points to trade at 24,932.25. Global investors reacted nervously to the rapidly evolving geopolitical situation, leading to heightened volatility across regional and international markets.