Following an early crash and a temporary market halt, the KSE-100 benchmark index resumed trading, recovered slightly by midday, but plunged sharply by 16,089.17 points, posting its largest-ever single-day decline.

As trading began Monday following a weekend marred by geopolitical instability, the market crashed by over 15,000 points, causing the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) to halt trading.

According to Chief Executive Officer Topline Securities Mohammed Sohail, the “market overreacted initially amid selling by a few funds and leveraged players”.

As trading resumed around 10:30am, the index was down 12,334.88 points from its previous close of 168,062.16 points, marking a fall of 7.34 per cent.

Sohail added that after the halt, some buying was seen as investors realised the market had already fallen by 20pc from its recent peak and had attractive values.

By 11:07am, the market recovered more, with the index down 9,164.62 points, marking a fall of 5.45pc.

However, by closing the index hit 151,972.99 points, slightly above the intraday low of 151,747.96 points, marking a 9.57pc decline from its previous close.

The top active stocks were led by K-Electric Limited, which fell 12.53pc to Rs6.70 on a volume of 163,349,544 shares, followed by Worldcall Telecom Limited, down 13.18pc to Rs1.12 with a volume of 82,602,451 shares, and First National Equities Limited, which declined 20.13pc to Rs1.23 at a volume of 41,849,359.

According to Topline Securities, heavyweight constituents including Fauji Fertilizer Company, United Bank Limited, Engro Holdings Limited, Hub Power Company, and Meezan Bank Limited exerted substantial downward pressure, collectively eroding 5,167 points from the benchmark index.

The brokerage firm added that despite the pronounced decline, trading activity remained elevated.

Total market volume reached 809 million shares, generating a turnover of Rs. 48.5 billion.

The sharp plunge comes as regional geopolitical tensions spiked over the weekend as the United States and Israel on Saturday launched what they described as a “pre-emptive” joint strike against Iranian targets, with US President Donald Trump announcing the start of “major combat operations”.

The tensions have caused Brent to jump 6.4pc to $77.57 a barrel by early Monday, though it had briefly topped $82.00 at one stage, while US crude climbed 6.2pc to $71.17 per barrel.

Safe-haven gold rose 1.6pc to $5,360 an ounce on Monday.

AKD research noted that they “expect the KSE-100 to stage a recovery, as the direct economic impact on Pakistan appears manageable and the country is not a direct party to the conflict”.