The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a historic crash on Monday as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East triggered panic selling and forced trading to be temporarily halted.

The market, which reopened after the weekend, came under heavy pressure following reports of intensified conflict between regional powers. Investors reacted sharply, causing the benchmark KSE-100 index to plunge by 15,070 points — nearly 10 percent — within the first hour of trading. The index fell to 152,991.01 points before trading was suspended and scheduled to resume later at 10:22am.

Market activity showed widespread losses across major sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation, and refineries. Key stocks such as HBL, MCB, MEBL, MARI, OGDC, POL, PPL, HUBCO and ARL traded deep in the red.

Also Read: Iran-Israel tensions: Decision to monitor petroleum products

Out of 567 companies traded during early sessions, only five remained in positive territory, 179 were unchanged, while 383 recorded losses. Analysts said billions of rupees in market value were wiped out within minutes due to heavy selling pressure.

The crash followed a week of continued market stress. The benchmark index had already declined by 5,107.53 points, or 2.9 percent week-on-week, closing at 168,062.17 points amid rising uncertainty and capital outflows.

Experts believe investor sentiment will remain fragile until regional tensions ease and stability returns to global financial markets.