Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued the bearish trend on Wednesday as the benchmark KSE-100 Index dropped 1635.97 points, with a negative change of 1.02%, closing at 158,465.05 points against 160,101.02 points in the previous session.
At the onset the market opened in green and gained over 500 points to reach 160,690.12 points but could not maintain the bullish trend and fell in the red after strong selling pressure emerged amid news that Pak-Afghan dialogue in Istanbul failed.
A total of 478 companies transacted their shares in the stock market; 123 recorded gains, 314 sustained losses, and 41 remained unchanged.
The overall trading volume in the ready market stood at 931,093,782 shares compared to 1,018.74 million shares on the prior day, whereas the traded value increased to Rs 40.826 billion from Rs 36.94 billion.
Selling pressure was observed in key sectors, including automobile assemblies, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation, and refineries. Index-heavy stocks, including HUBCO, ARL, MARI, POL, PSO and SSGC, traded in the red.
On Tuesday, PSX witnessed a sharp and broad-based sell-off as heavy institutional offloading and profit-taking drove the index into a steep decline. The KSE-100 Index plunged by 2,062.78 points, or 1.27%, to close at 160,101.03.
Internationally, Asian shares got a lift from Wall Street on Wednesday thanks to a fresh wave of optimism over artificial intelligence, as investors braced for a busy day headlined by the Federal Reserve’s decision and earnings from technology heavyweights.
