KARACHI: The stock market crashed on Thursday following deterioration in world stock markets after World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus as global pandemic.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) failed to sustain 36,000 level and ended down by 1717 points to 35,956 points. The benchmark index witnessed sharp decline on Monday this week.
Analysts said that the stock market was under massive pressure following significant dip in US markets and sharp decline in Asian markets.
Besides, world oil prices also came down by 4 percent. They said that the multiple factors had brought down the local bourses.
Earlier in the day the market was halted for 45 minutes when the KSE-30 index fell 4 percent. This was second halt in trading of PSX in this week. However, the market unable to recover after resumption.
The analysts said that the investors were cautious about the threat of coronavirus. The central banks of many countries had cut interest rates owing to expected decline in the world economy.
Further, the investors are also eying a sizeable cut in key policy rate by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) as the statement is scheduled to be announced on Mach 17, 2020.
