Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) Monday plunged over 5 percent just after opening of trading session and the PSX had to trigger market halt which lasted for two hours.
It was the 7th market halt during last two weeks, however it was first with extended period of two hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) had announced on Monday evening to extend market halt period from 45 minutes to 120 minutes (2hours). The PSX informed the market participants that due to 5.0 percent decline in KSE-30 index, market halt has been triggered at 11:37 a.m. All equity and equity based derivative markets remained suspended for 120 minutes and reopened following a 5 minute pre-open session. All outstanding orders had been cancelled.
The SECP also announced to reduce trading hours of PSX and the market opened on 11:30pm. However, reduced trading hours and extended market halt failed to make any positive change and the market saw declining trend before and after market halt and most of the stocks closed on lower circuit level.