KSE-100 index gains over 3,000 points after Trump's tariff pause

Shares in Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) gained relief with more than 3,300 points on Thursday after US President Donald Trump a 90-day pause on his proposed new tariffs.

The rebound was witnessed after a global market decline due to the fears of tariff imposition by the Trump-led US administration. 

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump abruptly  stepped back from the new trade barriers that hammered markets, prompting retaliatory responses from China and the European Union. 

“I have authorised a 90-day pause, and a substantially lowered reciprocal tariff during this period, of 10pc, also effective immediately,” Trump wrote on social media.

Read: Trump halts tariffs on dozens of nations, escalates trade war with China

In the latest announcement, he raised the tariff on Chinese imports to 125% from the previous 104%. 

However, the change led to a gain in the benchmark KSE-100 index, which, after opening at 9:30 am, increased by 3,331.01 points (2.92%) to reach 112,891.48, up from the previous close of 114,153.15.

Chief Executive at Topline Securities Mohammad Sohail linked the positivity in the local market to global trends. 

Similarly, Awais Ashraf, research director at AKD, stated that the tariff pause on countries other than China brought a bullish trend back into the KSE-100 index, and this shift would be expected to improve the macroeconomic fundamentals.

Read: Shares at PSX plummet by 6,200 points after global market crash on 'Black Monday'

Earlier, PSX had witnessed a bloodbath after shares plummeted by more than 62,000 point as global markets suffered heavy losses on what is being dubbed "Black Monday," driven by fears of a US-China trade war and a potential global recession. 

Notably, the market had crossed the 120,000-point milestone on Friday, after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s announcement of a reduction in electricity tariffs.