PSX experiences bloodbath, sheds 819.55 points in intra-day trading.

KARACHI -- The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) has been experiencing a bloodbath on Monday following a spike in new coronavirus cases that refuelled investor anxiety about China's disease outbreak. The continuous dull and drab activity with bulls and bears managing to secure an upper hand in turns amid absence of several other triggers pushed the benchmark KSE-100 Share Index level below 40,000 after massive drop of 819.55 points or 2.04pc. As of 11.24am, the Index reached 39,429.67 adopting a negative trajectory for the latest session. The market opened at 40,238.25. The apex of the day remained 40,249.22 (the previous close on Friday) and 39,425.56, the lowest so far. In the previous week, the market struggled for its sustainability as confusion and uncertainty surrounded potential investors until Friday when the FATF

maintained Pakistan's status in its grey list of countries with inadequate controls to restrict money laundering and terror financing. These concerns together with uncontrollable spread of coronavirus that has adversely affected the Asian economy, in particular, have restricted the stock market to grow. Among other persisting factors were the large suspension of imports from China, which had been hammering the stock market, and strife political disagreements between coalition parties in the government until some of them were settled in meetings with the ruling PTI. On a positive note, investors were relieved as the prime minister announced no change in gas and electricity prices until at least the next budget against rumours of an earlier increase. Moreover, the foreign exchange reserves...