PSX Plunges 3,500 Points Over Fears of “Indian Strike”

Panic gripped the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Wednesday as the benchmark KSE-100 Index lost over 3,500 points over fears of potential Indian military action against Pakistan. At close, the KSE-100 Index was down 3,545 points (or 3.18 percent) to close at 111,326 points. A total of 485,642,356 shares were traded during the day as compared to 409,933,985 shares the previous trading day, whereas the price of shares stood at Rs. 30.81 billion against Rs. 29.06 billion on the last trading day. As many as 457 companies transacted their shares in the stock market, 60 of them recorded gains and 352 sustained losses, whereas the share price of 45 companies remained unchanged. It is pertinent to mention here that Federal Minister for Information Attaullah Tarar said in the early hours of Wednesday that “credible intelligence” reports indicated to the Indian plans of conducting military action against Pakistan in next 24 to 36 hours, which he said, would have “catastrophic consequences for the entire region and beyond”. “Pakistan has credible intelligence that India intends carrying out military action against Pakistan in the next 24-36 hours on the pretext of baseless and concocted allegations of involvement in the Pahalgam incident,” the minister said in a late-night post on X. The KSE-100 Index gained over 800 points yesterday after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) formally notified that the Executive Board meet to discuss the first review of ongoing $7 billion bailout programme as well as a new $1.3 billion arrangement under a climate resilience loan programme on May 9.