Shares at the Pakistan Stock Exchange declined by more than 3,000 points in intraday trade after global equities collapsed on a black Monday for markets in the wake of China hammering the United States with its own hefty tariffs, ramping up a trade war many fear could spark a recession.
The benchmark KSE-100 index was down by 3,394.66 points, or 2.86 per cent, to stand at 115,397.00 from the last close of 118,791.66 at 10:09am.
Awais Ashraf, director research at AKD Securities, attributed the decline to “investors fears that tariff hikes could lead to global recession through weaker demand”.
“We believe being an import-led economy … the imposition of US tariffs would benefit us due to possible decline in global commodity prices,” he added.
Yousuf M. Farooq, director research at Chase Securities, said, “Contagion. Markets are broadly down on fears of a global recession.
“However, the KSE-100 Index has declined by only 2.5pc — a relatively modest drop compared to other regional markets,” he said.
He noted that there was notable selling pressure in oil and banking stocks.
“Lower oil prices are expected to negatively impact earnings for oil exploration companies,” he stated, highlighting that at the same time, textile exporters could “face headwinds from new US tariffs”.
“While these tariffs pose short-term risks, particularly for the textile sector, the overall impact of the US trade policy may prove neutral to positive for Pakistan —especially if commodity prices stay low,” he added.
In the short term, he remarked that the textile sector could face profitability challenges due to both direct and indirect (first and second round) impact.
“However, lower global commodity prices may help ease inflationary pressures domestically, potentially leading to lower interest rates,” he said. “This, in turn, could support a gradual recovery in valuations.”
On the government’s role, he stressed that the federal government would have to “move quickly and start negotiations for the removal of tariffs from Pakistani products”.
Mohammed Sohail, chief executive of Topline Securities, also attributed the decline to the global market crash.
Trading floors were overcome by a wave of selling as investors fled to the hills on the worst day for equities since the pandemic, with Hong Kong shedding 10pc, Tokyo briefly diving 8pc and Taipei more than 9pc.
Futures for Wall Street’s markets were also taking another drubbing, while concerns about the impact on demand also saw commodities slump.
Donald Trump sparked a market meltdown last week when he unveiled sweeping tariffs against US trading partners for what he says was years of being ripped off and claimed that governments were lining up to cut deals with Washington.
But after Asian markets closed on Friday, China said it would impose retaliatory levies of 34pc on all US goods from April 10.
It also imposed export controls on seven rare earth elements, including gadolinium — commonly used in MRIs — and yttrium, utilised in consumer electronics.
Hopes that the US president would rethink his policy in light of the turmoil were dashed Sunday when he said he would not make a deal with other countries unless trade deficits were solved.
He denied that he was intentionally engineering a selloff and insisted he could not foresee market reactions.
“Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” he said of the ructions that have wiped trillions of dollars off company valuations.
No sector spared
The selling in Asia was across the board, with no sector unharmed by the savage selling — tech firms, car makers, banks, casinos and energy firms all felt the pain as investors abandoned riskier assets.
Among the biggest losers, Chinese ecommerce titans Alibaba tanked more than 14pc and rival JD.com shed 13pc, while Japanese tech investment giant SoftBank dived more than 10pcand Sony gave up 9.6pc.
Shanghai shed more than six pc and Singapore eight pc, while Seoul gave up more than five pc triggering a so-called sidecar mechanism — for the first time in eight months — that briefly halted some trading.
Sydney, Wellington, Manila and Mumbai were also deep in the red.
Steve Cochrane, chief Asia-Pacific economist at Moody’s Analytics, said: “We could see a recession happen very quickly in the US, and it could last through the year or so, it could be rather lengthy.
“And if there’s a recession in the US, of course, China will feel it as well because demand for its goods will be hit even harder. Harder than they would have been hit just because of the tariffs.” Concerns about demand saw oil prices sink more than three pc on Monday, having dropped around seven pc on Friday. Both main contracts are now sitting at their lowest levels since 2021.
Copper — a vital component for energy storage, electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines — also extended losses.
“The market is in free-fall mode again, punching through floors,” said Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management. “Trump’s team isn’t blinking. The tariffs are being treated as a victory lap, not a bargaining chip.” The losses followed another day of carnage on Wall Street on Friday, where all three main indexes fell almost 6pc.
That came after Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell said US tariffs will likely cause inflation to rise and growth to slow and warned of an “elevated” risk of higher unemployment.
The measures by Trump are likely to give US central bankers a headache as they try to balance the need for interest rate cuts to support the economy with the need to keep a lid on prices.
His comments came after Trump had insisted “my policies will never change” and urged the Fed to cut rates.
“Powell’s hands are tied,” said Innes. “He’s acknowledged the obvious — that tariffs are inflationary and recessionary — but he’s not signalling a rescue.
“And that’s the problem. This time, the Fed’s inflation mandate is forcing it to keep the safety net rolled up while asset prices get torched.”
Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade, said: “Traders are nervously watching the two biggest economies going toe to toe on tariffs and are fearing that both could receive knockout blows from a prolonged economic fight.”
