Pakistan stocks snap 4-day losses; KSE100 rallies 3% amid border tensions

Stock markets in Pakistan edged higher on Friday, a day after trading was suspended following a stock meltdown after tensions escalated along the border with India.

 

The benchmark KSE100 index rose as much as 3.19 per cent during the day, but trimmed gains to trade 1.2 per cent higher as of 10:42 AM. Meanwhile, the KSE-30 index also rose nearly 3.5 per cent during the session, after Pakistan fired missiles in Jammu and Kashmir Thursday evening. 

 

The early momentum in Pakistan's stocks comes after the key gauges fell for four straight sessions as tensions with India escalated. Trading in Pakistan was halted on Thursday as the benchmark indices plunged over 7 per cent to hit the lower circuit. 

 

Meanwhile, India's Nifty50 and Sensex were trading lower by 1.09 per cent and 0.9 per cent, respectively, on Friday. India VIX, the measure of market volatility in the domestic market, jumped as much as 8.19 per cent to 22.7, the highest level jump since April 8 this year

 

Since the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, the KSE-30 index has shed 14.3 per cent, while the domestic Nifty index has moved lower by around 0.5 per cent.  

 

Pakistan retaliates against India's 'Operation Sindoor' 

 

Pakistan fired eight missiles directed at Satwari, Samba, RS Pura and Arnia, all in Jammu & Kashmir on Thursday evening, which were all intercepted or blocked by air defence units. This comes in after India neutralised air defence radars and systems at many locations in Pakistan, a retaliation to the latter's attempt to engage several military targets.

 

Electricity in cities of Jammu, Pathankot and other areas under Pakistani attack was snapped on Thursday, leading to a complete blackout.  

 

There were blackouts in Amritsar, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Mohali and Chandigarh in Punjab. An Indian Premier League match in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, 80 km from the Pathankot airbase, was called off. Power supply was restored in some of these cities later in the night.

 

These developments come days after the Indian armed forces carried out coordinated missile strikes on terrorist infrastructure at nine locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) under the code name 'Operation Sindoor.' The operation was carried out in the early hours of Wednesday (May 7) and came in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, which claimed the lives of 26 people.