The Pakistan Stock Exchange opened for trading two hours late at 11:30am on Tuesday, a day after the army was called in to impose a country-wide lockdown to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus which has affected over 900 people since the country's first case on Feb 26.

But as soon as trading began, all hell broke loose as panicked investors rushed for the exit: The benchmark KSE-100 index plunged 1,826 points by 11:37am, just seven minutes into the opening bell. By that time, the KSE-30 index had shed 928 points, diving close to 7pc and trigerring a halt in trading for 90 minutes.

The late market open today was among a host of unprecedented measures put in place by the Securities and Exchanges Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to ensure "continuity of business operations" in view of the lockdown situation and the "remote access arrangements".

Read the full story here.