Islamabad
\nStocks at the bourse slid lower on Thursday as investors turned risk-averse after Donald Trump threatened further action against Iran, while a spike in oil prices deepened pressure on sentiment.
\nThe Pakistan Stock Exchange\u2019s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 152,011.26 points, down 3,500.30 points, or 2.25%, from the previous close of 155,511.56.
\nThe index between a high of 152,272.63, down 3,238.93 points or 2.08%, and a low of 150,022.43, down 5,489.13 points or 3.53%.
\n\u201cYesterday\u2019s Trump statement to continue fighting for 2 to 3 weeks and Iran\u2019s comments on no ceasefire have increased oil prices today by 5 to 7%. That is dampening the mood,\u201d said AAH Soomro, an independent investment and economic analyst.
\nTrump, in his prime-time speech, said the US will strike Iran \u201cextremely hard\u201d over the next two to three weeks and hit the country into the \u201cStone Ages\u201d, sending stocks retreating.
\n\u201cThe remarks signal potential escalation, keeping investors on edge and reinforcing a risk-off mood, with volatility likely to persist in the near term,\u201d said Huzaifa Riaz, Director, Mayari Securities (Pvt) Limited.
\nOil surged after Trump\u2019s address did little to ease concerns over the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, with Brent climbing more than 4% to as high as $105.55 and WTI rising 3% to $103.16 after reversing earlier declines.
\nRisk aversion also weighed on global equities, with US stock futures down 0.67%, European futures 0.1% lower and MSCI\u2019s broadest Asia-Pacific index outside Japan falling 0.75%. Japan\u2019s Nikkei also reversed course to trade 0.79% lower.
\nOn the domestic front, the government raised Rs753 billion in realised value at Wednesday\u2019s Treasury bill auction, with yields mixed, according to the State Bank of Pakistan. The move came after CPI inflation rose to 7.3% year-on-year in March from 7.0% in February, while investors also kept an eye on the next SBP policy meeting due on April 27.
\nIn the previous session, the benchmark surged 6,768.25 points, or 4.55%, to close at 155,511.57 from 148,743.32, in a rally that briefly triggered a market halt after a 5.0% rise in the KSE-30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad Stocks at the bourse slid lower on Thursday as investors turned risk-averse after Donald Trump threatened further action against Iran, while a spike in oil prices deepened pressure on sentiment. The Pakistan Stock Exchange\u2019s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 152,011.26 points, down 3,500.30 points, or 2.25%, from the previous close of 155,511.56. The …<\/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-95820","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\/95820","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=95820"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95832,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95820\/revisions\/95832"}],"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=95820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}