Pakistan’s stocks rebounded sharply on Tuesday after suffering one of their steepest declines on record a day earlier, as improving global sentiment lifted investor confidence.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index surged more than 9,000 points in early trading on the Pakistan Stock Exchange after comments from Donald Trump suggesting the conflict in the Middle East could end soon.
By 9:22 a.m. in Karachi, the index was trading at 155,783.89, up 9,303.75 points, or 6.35%, recovering a large portion of Monday’s losses.
With this, the trading at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) was temporarily suspended on Tuesday after the KSE-30 Index surged 5% from the previous trading day’s close, triggering an automatic market halt under PSX regulations.
According to a notice issued by the exchange, the halt was triggered at 09:22 AM, leading to the suspension of all equity-based markets. As per the rules, all outstanding orders were automatically cancelled by the system. The exchange announced that trading would resume in phases, with the pre-open session starting at 10:22 AM, followed by the market reopening at 10:27 AM.
Buying momentum was seen across major sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, oil marketing firms, and power producers. Index-heavy shares such as Attock Refinery Limited, Hub Power Company Limited, Mari Energies Limited, Oil and Gas Development Company Limited, Pakistan Oilfields Limited, Pakistan Petroleum Limited, Habib Bank Limited, National Bank of Pakistan and United Bank Limited all traded higher.
The rebound follows a dramatic selloff on Monday, when the KSE-100 Index plunged 11,015.95 points, or 6.99%, to close at 146,480.15, marking one of the most severe declines in the market’s history. The rout was driven by escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and sharp movements in global oil prices, which rattled investor sentiment.
Global markets also showed signs of recovery on Tuesday. Asian equities climbed while oil prices fell after Trump said the war in the Middle East could be “over soon,” easing concerns that the conflict would further disrupt global energy supplies.