Single largest fall in PSX history as KSE-100 crashes over 5% in intra-day trading.

Byline: Maidah Haris and Salman Siddiqui

KARACHI -- The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) briefly halted trading after it recorded the single largest slump in history of over 2,000 points, or 5.8%, in intraday trade on Monday.

Investors dumped shares and ran out of the market as they took cues from plunging global stock markets and the worst slump in international oil prices since the 1991 Gulf war.

At 9:37am, the KSE-100 Index - a benchmark for market performance - was down 2,106.78 points or 5.51 per cent to stand around 36,211.89 points.

At 10:39am, the KSE-100 Index - a benchmark for market performance - was down 2,214.89 points or 5.80% to stand around 36,004.78 points.

According to the new PSX rules, both indices and individual stocks can plunge or spike maximum by 7 per cent in a day. Previously, the limits were capped at 5 per cent either side.

Topline Securities chief executive officer (CEO) Muhammad Sohail said PSX rules stated that if market falls over four per cent, trading is automatically halted.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Arif Habib Limited (AHL) Head of Research Samiullah Tariq said the decline in oil prices and regional indices led the investors to panic and offload stocks which toppled the market.

The continuous rise in cases of the coronavirus across the world stoked fears of further economic damage to the global economy.

Tariq remarked market recovering from the current low during the day seemed unlikely. 'Large weighted stocks have touched the floor. Keeping in view new regulations, brokers are required to submit margins during the day. This will force them to sell other shares,' he said. 'Consequently the entire market has gone down.'

On the other hand, AHL Head of Equity Sales Saad bin Ahmed said, 'As such the oil market is facing rout. The local investors panicked due to the crashing oil prices. Since they aren unable to sell oil stocks, they are selling what they can - cement and steel - to generate liquidity and manage margin calls.'

Topline Securities Director Research Syed Atif Zafar's analysis was on the same lines as he also blamed global oil prices collapse of 30 per cent causing the PSX to nosedive.

'Stock markets plunged across the world after the international oil prices...