Bears Dominate Late as Geopolitical Jitters Shake Market
Staff Report
KARACHI: Trading session on Monday witnessed a classic tug-of-war between bulls and bears. The index opened on a positive note, gaining strong momentum in the early hours to register an intraday high of 1,189 points. However, the optimism proved short-lived, as intensified selling pressure later in the session caused the index to reverse sharply, touching an intraday low of 1,601 points. The market eventually closed at 114,063 — down by 1,405 points or 1.22%.
The prevailing negative sentiment was largely driven by escalating tensions between India and Pakistan, which heightened investor concerns and weighed heavily on overall market confidence.
On the positive side, SYS, LUCK, MEBL, and HBL collectively contributed 489 points to the index. Conversely, the bulk of the negative impact came from ENGROH, UBL, MARI, EFERT, and PSO, which together shaved off 907 points from the benchmark.
Despite the risk-averse sentiment, overall participation remained firm with volumes clocking in at 421 million shares and a turnover of PKR 26.43 billion, underscoring continued investor engagement amid macro and geopolitical overhangs.
The political tension between Pakistan and India has led to heavy losses for stocks at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) that causing the erasure of early gains.
The political tension between the two countries has shaken the investors’ confidence in stocks at the Pakistan Stock Exchange.
The benchmark KSE-100 index initially rose by 941 points and reached 116,411 around 10:05 am. However, by 3:03 pm, the momentum was reversed sharply, and the index dropped 969 points to close at 114,500.
Experts have said that the market’s sharp swings were a result of a mix of corporate earnings and ongoing geopolitical concerns.
Awais Ashraf, Director of Research at AKD Securities, said that strong corporate results led to early excitement, but investors quickly became cautious amid fears of rising political tensions between Pakistan and India.
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Mohammed Sohail, CEO of Topline Securities, has told the media that while some buying occurred in the morning, investors stayed wary. They anticipated critical developments in the coming days.
Yousuf M. Farooq, Director of Research at Chase Securities, has pointed out that although the market opened higher due to no major weekend escalation, the optimism faded fast as time passed.
He has noted that positive factors like Pakistan’s strong current account balance, low inflation, and a stable real effective exchange rate (REER) have helped limit the damage.
Farooq also highlighted that expectations of interest rate cuts could result in boosting market valuations. But he warned that a sustained recovery would rely on easing political tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
During last week’s attack in Pahalgam, as many as 26 people were killed, and most of them were tourists.
The incident marked the deadliest violence in the disputed Kashmir region since 2000. In response, India had suspended the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), and Pakistan responded by pulling back from the Simla Agreement and closing its airspace to Indian flights.
AKD Securities has noted that the PSX remained volatile throughout the week due to rising geopolitical risks, which unsettled investors, weighing heavily on market sentiment.
