Escalating regional tensions took their toll on investor sentiment at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as the benchmark KSE-100 index plunged over 1,000 points during the opening few minutes of trading on Thursday. At 10:20am, the benchmark index had recovered some of its losses to hover at 62,846.53 level, still a decrease of 720.80 points or 1.13%. Negativity was witnessed across-the-board with index-heavy sectors including cement, chemical, commercial banks, fertilizer, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and power generation trading in the red. Selling pressure comes as tensions between neighbouring Pakistan and Iran rose to spook investors, said experts. \u201cThis morning Pakistan undertook a series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts in Siestan-o-Baluchistan province of Iran,\u201d the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said in a statement on Thursday morning. \u201cA number of terrorists were killed during the Intelligence-based operation \u2013 codenamed \u2018Marg Bar Sarmachar\u2019,\u201d it added. The development was Islamabad\u2019s response after Iran conducted a strike inside Pakistani territory which Pakistan said resulted in the death of two innocent children and injured three girls. \u201cThis violation of Pakistan\u2019s sovereignty is completely unacceptable and can have serious consequences,\u201d said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement early Wednesday morning. The latest strikes add to multiple regional crises amid Israel\u2019s aggression in Gaza and pro-Palestinian Houthis\u2019 attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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