KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) crashed on Friday minutes after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced a 10 per cent tax on large-scale industries.
The bourse stayed flat until two hours after the opening bell. However, at 11:40am, the market witnessed a steep dip with the KSE-100 losing 1,598 points and sinking to 41,100. At 12pm, the benchmark KSE-100 index was down 2,053 points or 4.8pc.
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As per the PSX Rulebook, if the index goes five per cent above or below its last close and stays there for five minutes, trading in all securities is halted for a specified period.
Intermarket Securities’ head of equities Raza Jafri cited “massive taxes” as the reason behind the plunge. “The market has reacted very negatively because it will severely hurt corporate profitability,” he told to the media.
