KSE-100 sheds over 1,500 points amid Middle East tensions

Selling pressure engulfed the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) amid escalating geopolitical tensions as fresh Israeli strikes on Iran spooked investors, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding over 1,500 points on Monday.

The benchmark index came under intense selling pressure right from the start, falling sharply below the 168,500-point level.

However, investors quickly stepped in to capitalise and triggered a strong rebound that pushed the index towards the intraday high of 169,360.54 points during the morning session.

Buying activity resurfaced again after midday when the index dipped to the intraday low of 168,432.45 points. The benchmark staged another recovery, gradually climbing through the afternoon session and narrowing some of its earlier losses.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 168,953.70, down by 1,525.24 points or 0.89%.

During the previous week, escalating tensions between the United States and Iran weighed heavily on investor sentiment during the outgoing week, pulling the PSX lower as concerns over regional stability and rising oil prices prompted cautious trading across most sectors. The benchmark KSE-100 Index declined by 2%, or 3,483.87 points, on a week-on-week basis to close at 170,478.94 points.

Internationally, Asian stocks plunged on Monday as investors rushed out of the hottest AI-linked ​shares on fears the bull run has gone too far, too fast and as fresh hostilities in Iran pushed ‌up oil prices.

The twin triggers for a rout that is highlighting a fragile market mood were last week’s disappointing outlook at chipmaker Broadcom and a surprisingly strong US jobs report on Friday that has traders pricing a rate hike this year.

Korea’s chip-heavy KOSPI, the world’s best-performing market this year, led losses ​in Asia with a 5% slide that has the benchmark down 13% from last week’s record high.

Japan’s Nikkei fell ​almost 4% with market darlings across the computer-chip production supply chain falling furthest, while Taiwan’s benchmark sank ⁠3.9%.

Nasdaq futures were attempting a recovery following a sharp selloff on Friday, and European futures fell 1%.

The Nasdaq dropped 4.2% on ​Friday.

In bonds, 2-year Treasury yields rose more than 11 basis points on Friday and were ​up 1.6 bps on Monday to 4.1782%.

The Middle East situation also remains delicate, and Brent crude futures were up about 3.5% to $96.45 a barrel on Monday after Israel said it struck military targets in western and central Iran.