PSX falls over 4,500 points as Middle East tensions weigh on investor sentiment

Heavy sell-off continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday as investors remained cautious amid ongoing tensions in the Middle East, pushing the benchmark KSE-100 Index down by over 4,500 points at closing. 

Losses were observed across several major sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, and power generation companies. Among index-heavy stocks, HUBCO, INDU, LUCK, HBL, MCB, and MEBL traded in negative territory.

The decline follows a week of sustained pressure in the domestic equity market. During the previous week, the KSE-100 Index fell by 3,629.92 points on a week-on-week basis, representing a drop of 2.3% to close at 153,866.17 points.

At the end of the session, the benchmark index closed at 149,178.66, down by 4687.50 points, or 3.05% from the previous close.

Investor sentiment has remained cautious amid geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, domestic security concerns, and uncertainty surrounding the macroeconomic outlook.

Global markets also reflected similar caution. Asian equities traded mixed on Monday as hostilities in the Gulf kept oil prices elevated, complicating the global inflation outlook ahead of several central bank policy meetings scheduled this week.

Oil markets remained volatile, with Brent crude rising 0.8% to $104.01 per barrel, while US crude declined 0.2% to $98.48.

Central banks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada, Switzerland and Sweden are scheduled to hold policy meetings in the coming days, with energy prices expected to influence their decisions.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.8%, while South Korean equities rose 0.2 percent after both markets posted losses last week. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged down 0.1%.

Chinese blue-chip stocks declined 0.5% even as economic data showed retail sales and industrial output for the first two months of the year exceeded forecasts, while housing prices continued to decline.