Stocks fell sharply in intraday trade on Monday, as renewed US-Iran hostilities, worsening Middle East tensions and a jump in global oil prices triggered selling pressure at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The benchmark KSE-100 Index touched an intraday low of 179,448.52, down 2,793.25 points, or 1.53%, from the previous close of 182,241.77. Its intraday high stood at 181,106.81, still down 1,134.96 points, or 0.62%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“PSX slid over 1% owing to Iran escalation and worsening Middle East tensions,” Ahsan Mehanti, Managing Director and CEO of Arif Habib Commodities, told Geo.tv<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mehanti said investor fears over inflation amid a surge in global crude oil prices and the potential impact on Pakistan’s external account played a catalyst role in the selling pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ismail Iqbal Securities also expected the market to remain under pressure as geopolitical tensions continued to escalate alongside rising oil prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Sentiment is likely to remain sensitive to any fresh developments on the geopolitical and macroeconomic fronts,” the brokerage said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The market opened lower as renewed US-Iran hostilities drove oil prices higher, prompting investors to adopt a cautious stance,” said Huzaifa Riaz, Director at Mayari Securities (Pvt) Limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Despite the prevailing geopolitical uncertainty, support emerged at lower levels in anticipation of renewed diplomatic negotiations once the escalation subsides,” he added<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oil prices jumped more than 4% on Monday after another flare-up between the United States and Iran threatened their already fragile truce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Stocks fell sharply in intraday trade on Monday, as renewed US-Iran hostilities, worsening Middle East<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-pakistan"],"yoast_head":"\n