KARACHI – The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) dropped sharply on Thursday after US President Donald Trump’s statement of launching “extremely hard” strikes against Iran in coming weeks intensified investor fears.
In the opening session, the KSE-100 index plunged 5,489.13 points to drop to 150,022.43 points compared to previous close of 155,511.56 points.
The nosedive comes a day after the stock market witnessed significant gains
The benchmark KSE-100 witnessed a strong bullish trend on Wednesday, gaining 6,768.25 points, a positive change of 4.55 percent, closing at 155,511.57 points against 148,743.32 points on the last trading day.
During the session, the ready market recorded a trading volume of 670.867 million shares with a traded value of Rs 43.979 billion, compared to 434.958 million shares valuing Rs 22.541 billion in the previous session. The market capitalization increased to Rs 17.215 trillion from Rs 16.534 trillion a day earlier.
Out of 485 active companies in the ready market, 365 advanced, 67 declined, and 53 remained unchanged.
US President Donald Trump has announced to hit Iran extremely hard over the next two to three weeks to achieve the America’s military objectives, a day after he signaled to exit Iran conflict without a formal deal.
Trump provided an update on Operation Epic Fury in an address to the nation. “I have made clear from the beginning of Operation Epic Fury that we will continue until our objectives are fully achieved. Thanks to the progress we’ve made, I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly — very shortly. We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We are going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing… We have all the cards; they have none,” he said.
“We are on the cusp of ending Iran’s sinister threat to America and the world,” Trump added.
He also came hard on the countries who refused to get involved in the “decapitation of Iran”.
