Islamabad
\nStocks fell sharply in intraday trade on Monday, as renewed US-Iran hostilities, worsening Middle East tensions and a jump in global oil prices triggered selling pressure at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).
\nThe benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 179,927.04, down 2,314.73 points, or 1.27%, from the previous close of 182,241.77.
\nDuring the session, it touched an intraday low of 179,448.52, down 2,793.25 points, or 1.53%, while its intraday high stood at 181,148.26, still down 1,093.51 points, or 0.6%.
\n\u201cPSX slid over 1% owing to Iran escalation and worsening Middle East tensions,\u201d Ahsan Mehanti, Managing Director and CEO of Arif Habib Commodities, told Geo.tv.
\nMehanti said investor fears over inflation amid a surge in global crude oil prices and the potential impact on Pakistan\u2019s external account played a catalyst role in the selling pressure.
\nIsmail Iqbal Securities also expected the market to remain under pressure as geopolitical tensions continued to escalate alongside rising oil prices.
\n\u201cSentiment is likely to remain sensitive to any fresh developments on the geopolitical and macroeconomic fronts,\u201d the brokerage said.
\n\u201cThe market opened lower as renewed US-Iran hostilities drove oil prices higher, prompting investors to adopt a cautious stance,\u201d said Huzaifa Riaz, Director at Mayari Securities (Pvt) Limited.
\n\u201cDespite the prevailing geopolitical uncertainty, support emerged at lower levels in anticipation of renewed diplomatic negotiations once the escalation subsides,\u201d he added
\nOil prices jumped more than 4% on Monday after another flare-up between the United States and Iran threatened their already fragile truce.
\nThe renewed hostilities followed last week\u2019s exchange of fire and came as negotiators struggled to reach a lasting peace deal to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.
\nThe US military launched a new wave of strikes on Sunday after renewed fighting over the waterway saw several of Washington\u2019s Gulf allies targeted by incoming fire.
\nBoth main oil contracts spiked as much as 4.5%, fanning fresh concerns that inflation could force central banks to raise interest rates.
\nThe renewed fighting followed an Iranian attack early Sunday on a commercial ship in the strait, with the crew forced to abandon it after it went up in flames.
\nIran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards said after the incident that \u201cthe Strait of Hormuz will be closed until further notice and until the end of American interventions in this region,\u201d according to state news agency IRNA.
\nUnited States Central Command, however, said on X that the strait was \u201copen to all vessels seeking to lawfully transit\u201d.
\nUS officials said around 20 vessels had been escorted through the strait in the previous 24 hours, though ship-tracking sites showed little traffic moving.
\nMonday\u2019s fall reversed gains from the previous session. The PSX had closed higher on Friday as the KSE-100 Index gained 982.10 points, or 0.54%, to settle at 182,241.78. The index touched an intraday high of 183,477.57 and a low of 181,880.55 during Friday\u2019s session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad Stocks fell sharply in intraday trade on Monday, as renewed US-Iran hostilities, worsening Middle East tensions and a jump in global oil prices triggered selling pressure at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). The benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 179,927.04, down 2,314.73 points, or 1.27%, from the previous close of 182,241.77. During the session, it …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":78403,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100246,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100221\/revisions\/100246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}