The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) gained over 3,300 points on Thursday, a day after the US announced pausing many of his new tariffs — barring China — for 90 days.
The rebound follows global market turmoil in response to fears that the trade war between the United States and China would escalate.
The benchmark KSE-100 index gained 3,331.01 points, or 2.92 per cent, to reach 112,891.48 at 9:33am from the previous close of 114,153.15.
Mohammed Sohail, chief executive at Topline Securities, noted: “Following international markets trend, PSX opened up 3,000 points close to 2.5pc.”
Awais Ashraf, research director at AKD Securities, yesterday pointed out that the hike in US tariffs on China has “heightened recession risks due to a slowdown in global growth, dampening investor sentiment at the PSX”.
“However, lower commodity prices — especially oil — and a potential competitive advantage from the new tariffs could positively impact our external account,” Ashraf noted.
Trump’s sudden reversal of tariffs came less than 24 hours after steep new tariffs kicked in on imports from dozens of trading partners. The new trade barriers have hammered markets, raised the odds of recession and prompted retaliatory responses from China and the European Union.
Trump said he would raise the tariff on Chinese imports to 125pc from the 104pc level that took effect at Wednesday midnight. At the same time, he said he would lower them on other countries also subject to his new targeted duties.
More to follow
