PSX bleeds as fears of Indian military action come true

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Wednesday witnessed yet another bloodbath this year — tumbling by over 3,500 points — as investors’ fears of a military action by India against Pakistan came true last night. The Pakistani military brought down five Indian jets in retaliation for late-night strikes launched by its neighbouring country at six sites in Punjab and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The benchmark KSE-100 index decreased by 6,560.82 points (5.78pc) to stand at 107,007.68 from the last close of 113,568.50 when the market opened at 9:30am. Due to the massive dip, the market was immediately suspended briefly. This marked the second-largest intra-day plunge (points-wise), ranking next to the nearly 8,700-point loss that followed the United States’ tariff announcement last month. However, the market started recovering slightly, reaching 112,457.37 points at around 10:34am, before closing at 110,009.02 points — 3,559.48 points (3.13pc) below yesterday’s close.