Trading at PSX Halted once More as Shares Fall 1,752 Points

Trading at the Pakistan Stock Exchange was halted for a second consecutive day on Thursday when share prices fell 1,752 points.

The market came to a halt around 9:35am when prices rapidly fell 5.76 per cent.

Yesterday, trading was halted around 10:15am after the benchmark KSE-100 index fell 1,682 points as investors reacted with disappointment to the lower-than-expected cut in the policy rate announced by the central bank on Tuesday.

On Monday, PSX had suffered its worst single-day decline in history.

Amid the mad rush to jettison shares – trigerred by the coronarvirus pandemic and the ensuing global economic slowdown – investors saw equity values hit their lower circuits.

As a result the KSE-100 index had plunged by 2,375.97 points, representing the steepest ever decline point-wise in a single day and a loss of 6.59 per cent, the heaviest one day drop in percentage terms, second only to the crash of 7.45pc witnessed on May 20, 2002.

A massive sum of Rs382 billion was wiped off the market capitalisation on Monday.