ISLAMABAD: The rising Israel-Iran tensions continue to impact trading at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (SPX) as the benchmark KSE-100 index lost over 250 points on Tuesday.
By the close, the index had settled at 121,971.04, showing a decline of 254.31 points or 0.21%.
US stock futures slipped and oil prices climbed on Tuesday as investors grew increasingly uneasy over the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran.
Tensions intensified after President Donald Trump called for the immediate evacuation of Tehran, heightening fears of a wider regional war.
Meanwhile, in line with market expectations, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) decided to keep the policy rate unchanged at 11%.
The MPC noted that the increase in inflation in May to 3.5% year-on-year (y/y) was in line with its expectation, whereas core inflation declined marginally.
On Tuesday, a total of 1,152,012,654 shares were traded at the Pakistan Stock Exchange as compared to 1,224,178,443 shares on the last working day, whereas the price of shares stood at PKR 27.983 billion against PKR 25.750 billion on the previous trading day.
As many as 473 companies transacted their shares in the stock market, 193 of them recorded gains, and 244 met losses, whereas the share price of 36 companies remained unchanged.
The three top trading companies were WorldCall Telecom with 239,756,205 shares at PKR 1.61 per share, followed by Pervez Ahmed Co. with 97,496,465 shares at PKR 3.88 per share, and Sui South Gas settled with 49,860,990 shares at PKR 44.82 per share.
Market anxiety was further fueled by reports that Trump had summoned the National Security Council to convene in the Situation Room and had cut short his visit to the G7 summit in Canada in response to the crisis.
In his latest remarks, Trump reiterated his stance that Iran should have agreed to a nuclear deal with the United States, underscoring his administration’s hardline approach.
The developments triggered a wave of risk-off sentiment in early Asian markets. S&P 500 futures fell 0.46%, European futures dropped 0.69%, and crude oil prices briefly surged more than 2%.
On Monday, Wall Street had ended the session higher after sources told Reuters that Iran was seeking an immediate ceasefire with Israel, possibly mediated by Trump. The news also helped ease an earlier rally in oil prices.
Gold prices also rose back towards a record high thanks to a rush into safe havens, but equities were mixed amid hopes that the conflict would not spread through the Middle East.
