Bloodbath on Pak bourse
Karachi: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) lost 6,500 points on Wednesday amid an escalation of military confrontation between India and Pakistan in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack.
The market saw investors in panic mode in intra-day trade as the benchmark KSE-100 index decreased by 6,560.82 points, or 5.78 per cent, to stand at 107,007.68 from the last close of 113,568.50 when the market opened this morning. Due to the massive dip, the market was immediately suspended briefly. This is the second-largest intraday tumble (points-wise), second to the 8,700 points loss that happened in the US last month after President Donald Trump's trade tariff announcements.
Fatima Bucha of AKD Securities said the market showed signs of recovery after 11 am, reaching 112,457.37 points, before declining to 111,171.92 points at 12 pm. 'This was expected in the market for days because of the fears about military strikes by India,' she said. 'The market opened under pressure this morning and some selling has been observed, though volumes remain low as investors assess the evolving situation,' she said.
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Time of India
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India also saw in the US statements a challenge to its strategic autonomy. It was seen by India as siding with Pakistan's nuclear blackmail and threat, as it helped demonstrate that the US had saved the world from a possible nuclear escalation. Lastly and most importantly, by pointing to Kashmir as the root cause of the war, the US was seen as internationalising an issue that India sees as an internal issue. It is quite possible that now, US think tanks will do their bit to showcase the US role and heighten this agenda. What India needs to do What can India conclude about the US behaviour? First, that the US has no permanent friends or enemies – only permanent interests. Second, that the US has a hub and spokes policy towards all – the US is the central hub and all other countries are spokes of different sizes that the US can manipulate and manage. Third, that the US military-industrial technology complex will seek to derive the greatest benefits from both countries and across the region. India will, therefore, have to rejig both its thinking and paradigm in foreign policy at the global, regional and bilateral levels as also in its domestic debates. India must also be wary of US interests drowning Indian interests – the US has always been a predatory power and embeds itself in regional conflicts and gains from these. India has been committed to multi-polarity, BRICS and other such forums and should stick with and enhance this. India must continue with self-reliance and its traditional time-tested partners. It also needs to curb the domestic war rhetoric as that does not help the interest of peace or show India as a sane voice of the Global South.
