Share prices tumble at Pakistan Stock Exchange
Another day, another nosedive
When it comes to stock exchanges, crunching numbers, and crumbling economies, there is no escape from the detrimental effects of corona virus. For the first time in great many years, stock markets around the world saw black Mondays after black Mondays after black Mondays. You get the trend — don’t you? Economies around the world have taken a nose dive and there seems no easy way out, at least for now. The trend has been unsettling for Pakistan Stock exchange too. Where some people predicted that Pakistan will benefit from the ongoing fiasco, economical experts predicted all but same for Pakistan too.
It seems like nobody has any answers when there is a health crisis as this one. We are still new to this pandemic — that has claimed one but too many lives. On Monday, share prices plummeted at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) and that was not something unexpected. The KSE-100 index displayed a depletion of 584.28 points. Early 39 minutes of trading saw the index going from a level of 32,806.38 to 32,170.49.
No matter what sector you can think of, halcyon days were long gone for every one of them, nearly. All of the important sectors were taking hits after hit. Sectors such as engineering, oil and gas, fertilizers, and cement, all were nowhere to be seen in line with those 11 companies making progress. Out of a total of 197, only 11 were making gains. All in all, it was not a pretty day for trading at the stock market.
On Friday, the story was not so good either. The market lost 44.45 points standing at a total of 32,806.38. However, much can be said on the similarity of the negative trend throughout the month of March 2020. On March 5th the market closed at 39,382.11 since then it was a downward curve. From 26th march till last week on Friday, the index gained 5,577.58 points and this was the only good news coming out of it. As for Monday, it came with a ray of hope for the Asian markets as governments around the world put their heads together to discuss reopening of businesses and economies. A positive investment trend was seen and sustained as the confidence somewhat spiraled up.
Indexes such as Japanese nikkei 225, Hong kong’s Seng Index, and Shanghai Composite Index all saw a rise of 2, 1.6, and 0.7 percent respectively. See? It’s not all bad news. Experts around the world are hopeful that future openings could also be higher.
