Pakistan’s stock market staged a strong recovery on Tuesday as the benchmark KSE-100 index surged 1609.39 points, or 1.4%, to reach 116,518.87 during intra day trading.
The market rebounded from Monday’s sharp fall, with intraday highs reaching 116,692.29 and lows touching 115,706.47. The volume stood at over 110.7 million shares, while the value of traded shares crossed Rs12 billion.
On Monday, the KSE-100 had closed at 114,909.48 following a steep 3,882-point drop, triggered by global economic concerns after new tariffs were introduced by US President Donald Trump.
The KSE-100 index faced a bloodbath on Monday, with the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) mirroring escalating global trade tensions and fears of a global recession.
As US President Donald Trump refused to back down from his tariff plans, retaliatory moves from China triggered fears of a broader trade war, causing markets to plunge around the world.
Asian equity markets took a nose-dive, European shares crashed to a 16-month-low, and oil prices sank as investors worried that the duties announced by Trump last week could lead to higher prices, weaker demand, and potentially trigger a global recession.
Goldman Sachs, alongside other major investment banks, has raised the odds of a US recession to 45% over the next 12 months.
JP Morgan economists estimated that the tariffs may push the US economy into a 0.3% contraction, down from their previous estimate of 1.3% growth of GDP.
Speaking on the matter, Trump commented, “I don’t want anything to go down. But sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”
World leaders reacted to the news with bewilderment, with China, the world’s No. 2 economy, referring to the tariffs as “economic bullying”.
