Pakistan stocks plummet in intraday trading

KARACHI: A rout of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) appeared to have picked up pace with the start of the week as the benchmark 100-index plummeted over 1,200 points in just the opening 90 minutes of trading on Monday.

The slide, which began with the start of the year, persisted after the opening of the integrated bourse, with the PSX-100 losing over 1,500 points last week.

But the index lost over 1,200 in the first two hours of trading today, plummeting to a low of 29,784 at 10:33AM before it regained to the current level of 30,161 points at mid-day, down 839 points or 2.7 percent since it opened.

Analysts say the market has been sliding in tandem with world and regional markets, as investors panic over a slump in crude oil prices with the lifting of sanctions on oil-producer Iran, exacerbated by worries over the condition of the Chinese economy and rising global concerns about a recession.

Also read: Oil slides to lowest since 2003 as Iran sanctions are lifted 

Asian shares slid to their lowest levels since 2011 after weak US economic data and a massive fall in oil prices stoked worries about a global economic downturn.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell to its lowest since October 2011 and was
last down 0.5 percent.

Japan's Nikkei tumbled as much as 2.8 percent to a one-year low. It has lost 20 percent from its peak hit in June,
meeting a common definition of a bear market.

On Wall Street, S&P 500 hit a 15-month low on Friday, ahead of Monday's market holiday.