KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) extended its overnight losses on Friday as mounting tensions in the Middle East dashed hopes of a swift resolution to the conflict. Ongoing tensions have pushed oil prices higher, posing economic challenges for Pakistan.
The country is already facing an unprecedented surge in liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) prices amid a shortage. The benchmark index closed in the red for a second consecutive session.
Investors are also cautious, as elevated petroleum prices and costly energy imports fuel inflationary pressures. The State Bank of Pakistan’s Monetary Policy Committee is likely to raise the policy rate at its next meeting on Oct 26.
Meanwhile, the PSX website had remained inaccessible since the morning, fuelling concerns among equity investors, who viewed the outage as a rare occurrence. The site was still down until late at night.
PSX web portal outage fuels investor concerns
The exchange did not issue an official statement explaining the cause of the website outage, despite repeated attempts by Dawn to obtain a comment.
A message appears on the screen when attempting to access psx.com.pk: “We’ll be back very soon. The website is under maintenance until further notice. You may access the PSX Data Portal.”
Topline Securities Ltd said the KSE-100 index extended its bearish trend, closing down 1,549.44 points, or 0.95 per cent, at 162,374.78 points, amid escalating tensions between the US and Iran and a further rise in crude oil prices.
Ali Najib, Deputy Head of Trading at Arif Habib Ltd, said the market remained volatile as the index moved in both directions amid cautious investor sentiment, driven by persistent geopolitical uncertainty and position-squaring ahead of the weekend.
The index staged a brief recovery, reaching an intraday high of 163,987 before renewed selling pressure pushed it lower, leaving it to close below the 163,000 level.
Meezan Bank, Engro Holdings, Lucky Cement, Hub Power, Pakistan Petroleum, MCB Bank, Systems Ltd, National Bank, Oil and Gas Development Company, and Habib Bank were the major laggards, collectively eroding 985 points from the benchmark.
Market activity remained subdued, with 384 million shares traded and total turnover reaching Rs18bn. Pervez Ahmed Co led the volume chart with 32.6m shares.
Analysts expect the market to remain volatile within the 160,000-168,000 range, amid cautious investor sentiment and evolving macroeconomic conditions, particularly the MPC announcement on Monday. The market expects a 50bps increase in benchmark interest rates, in the backdrop of geopolitical developments and oil supply disruptions.
Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2026
