Trading has resumed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) after it was temporarily suspended on Monday after the benchmark KSE-100 Index crashed by over 6,000 points, triggering automatic circuit breakers.
The one-hour halt, designed to cool market volatility and prevent panic selling, failed to stop the decline.
At 11:58am, the KSE-100 had already shed 6,287.22 points, or 5.29%, prompting the temporary suspension.
After trading resumed, market activity stood at 112,985.22 points.
The drop came amid a global market rout triggered by China’s announcement of retaliatory tariffs on US goods, escalating trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
Market participants described the plunge as one of the sharpest single-day declines in PSX history, underscoring investor fears over deepening geopolitical and economic uncertainty.
The sharp fall in Pakistani equities came amid an already jittery global market environment and added concerns over local macroeconomic conditions.
Morevoer, Asian markets nosedived on Monday as the escalating tariff war between the United States and China rattled investor confidence and triggered sharp declines across the region.
Japan’s Nikkei index fell over 8% after the open, while the Topix slumped more than 6.5%. In China, the Shanghai Composite dropped 6.7%, and the blue-chip CSI300 shed 7.5%. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong opened more than 9% lower, led by steep losses in tech giants Alibaba and Tencent.
South Korea’s Kospi lost over 4.8%, briefly halting trading due to a circuit breaker. Taiwan’s Taiex tumbled 9.7%, with heavyweights TSMC and Foxconn both falling around 10% and also triggering market-wide halts.
Markets in Australia and New Zealand were also hit, with the ASX 200 falling as much as 6.3% and the NZX 50 ending down 3.7%.
The sell-off followed a fierce retaliation from China, which imposed sweeping 34% tariffs on all US goods. This move came in response to US President Donald Trump’s sudden hike in trade duties, sparking fears of a prolonged and damaging economic conflict.
