Trading halted at PSX for 2 hours as index craters amidst near-complete shutdown nationwide
March 24, 2020
The Pakistan Stock Exchange saw yet another enforced halt in activity as trading resumed after a long weekend, with the sheer volume of sell orders placed before the market opened cratering the benchmark indexes and triggering a cool-down period.
The index plunged 5.96% as soon as trading resumed for the day, wiping 1,827 points off the benchmark 100 Index as investors dumped their holdings in a get-out-while-you-can run from the market.
The sell-off came with Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, main commercial hub and its biggest port, was locked down by the Sindh government to arrest a rapid increase in coronavirus cases.
Only 18.6 million shares (worth Rs759m) could change hands before trading was halted. The decline was across the board, with only 5 scrips advancing, 3 remaining unchanged while 146 recorded declines.
The index has now declined 29.2% since the start of this year.
The most active scrips today were Unity Foods, Lotte Chemical, K-Electric, OGDC and DG Khan Cement, which had declined 9.53%, 10.83%, 9.03%, 5.24% and 7.5% respectively before the market halt was triggered.
