KARACHI:

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) came under selling pressure on Wednesday, erasing early gains as investors turned cautious.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index initially traded in the green on the back of early buying interest, but profit-taking emerged before midday, dragging the market lower.

By 1:29pm, the Index had dropped to 167,054.08, down 1,358.15 points or 0.81% from the previous close. Intraday, the Index shed over 1,100 points at its lowest level, reflecting persistent selling pressure.

Declines were broad-based, with major sectors contributing to the downturn. Heavyweight commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, oil marketing companies (OMCs), power generation firms, and refineries all traded in the red, weighing on overall sentiment.

Market activity remained relatively strong, with volumes crossing 256 million shares, though the bias stayed negative as investors opted to book profits amid uncertainty. The session highlights a shift from early optimism to cautious trading, with participants closely monitoring economic and sector-specific developments till filing of this report.

Read: Rate hike undermines investor confidence

Tuesday’s session ended on a negative note as a 100-basis-point policy rate hike weighed on investor sentiment, who were worried that the central bank’s monetary tightening would dent business activities.

During the trading session, the benchmark KSE-100 index touched the intra-day high of 169,314 and low of 168,171. Ultimately, it lost 1,085.12 points, or 0.64%, to close at 168,412.23. Stocks remained under pressure since the opening bell, extending the previous session’s bearish momentum in an otherwise quiet trading environment as investors continued to absorb the impact of the State Bank’s decision to raise its policy rate by 100 basis points.

Selling remained relentless in sectors such as automobile assemblers, cement, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration, oil marketing companies and power generation, dragging the index lower.

Arif Habib Limited (AHL), in its report, noted that the spillover impact of a larger-than-expected hike in interest rates kept the market under pressure throughout the day.

On the benchmark index, 29 stocks rose while 70 fell, with Engro Holdings (+0.97%), Pakistan Tobacco (+8.52%) and Pakistan Oilfields (+1.39%) contributing the most to the day’s gains.

On the other side, UBL (-2.25%), Fauji Fertiliser Company (-1.5%) and Pakistan Petroleum (-1.36%) were the biggest index drags.