{"id":6010,"date":"2025-04-09T16:11:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T16:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/6010\/"},"modified":"2025-04-09T16:11:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T16:11:12","slug":"psx-slides-1300-points-as-fears-of-global-trade-war-deepen-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/6010\/","title":{"rendered":"PSX slides 1,300 points as fears of global trade war deepen – Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) declined by over 1,300 points on Wednesday, a day after the index posted a mild recovery<\/a> following global market turmoil<\/a> in response to fears that the trade war<\/a> between the United States and China would escalate.<\/p>\n

The benchmark KSE-100 index<\/a> plunged by 2,640.95 points, or 2.29 per cent, to reach at 112,891.48 at 10:49am from the previous close of 115,532.43. By 2:56pm it recovered to 114,370.23, or 1.01pc below the last close.<\/p>\n

Finally, the index declined by 1,379.28 points, or 1.19pc, to close at 114,153.15.<\/p>\n

The decline comes as additional US tariffs on Chinese imports reached 104pc<\/a> today, as Washington doubles down on planned action after Beijing vowed a \u201cfight to the end<\/a>\u201d on levies.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Awais Ashraf, research director at AKD Securities, pointed out that the hike in US tariffs on China to 104pc has \u201cheightened recession risks due to a slowdown in global growth, dampening investor sentiment at the PSX\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, lower commodity prices \u2014 especially oil \u2014 and a potential competitive advantage from the new tariffs could positively impact our external account,\u201d Ashraf noted.<\/p>\n

Yousuf M. Farooq, research director at Chase Securities, noted that the local stock exchange was down today \u201cin line with global markets\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cA decline in oil prices this morning has led to weakness in oil-related stocks. However, we believe the drop in oil prices will more than offset any downside risks to exports,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe market is currently down 5.5pc from its all-time high. That said, Pakistan\u2019s equity market has remained relatively resilient, as exports constitute a small portion of GDP,\u201d Farooq said.<\/p>\n

He added that historical data from the 2008 financial crisis<\/a> and the Covid-19 pandemic shows that remittances remained stable during those periods, which bodes well for external account stability.<\/p>\n

Farooq pointed out: \u201cIndia announced<\/a> an interest rate cut this morning, and with inflation expectations in Pakistan now significantly lower \u2014 driven by the global decline in commodity prices \u2014 we could potentially see a rate cut locally as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

He observed that lower oil prices also provide the government with fiscal space to raise revenues through a higher petroleum development levy (PDL) if necessary.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s fall in PSX follows Monday\u2019s bloodbath at the PSX<\/a> when shares plunged by 3,882 points amid rising fears of a global recession and retaliation from the United States\u2019 major trade partners and China.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

That day, the KSE-100 index witnessed a record intra-day plunge (points-wise) of 8,687.68 points, before partially recouping some losses on late value-hunting, following a mid-session trading halt.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, Ali Najib, head of sales at Insight Securities, emphasised<\/a> the need for observing market behaviour after April 9, when the global trade tariffs will be implemented, and assessing their repercussions on the affected countries.<\/p>\n

He said the reciprocal tariffs might trigger market volatility, with investor sentiment turning cautious, adding that export-driven stocks could decline while safe-haven assets like gold<\/a> might gain.<\/p>\n

Trade tensions with countries having huge trading volumes could spark retaliation, affecting global supply chains and earnings outlooks, potentially leading to a short-term market pullback.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) declined by over 1,300 points on Wednesday, a day after the index posted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[51,1700,16,15,3290],"class_list":{"0":"post-6010","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-us-trade-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114308886245063058","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}