KARACHI:

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed lower on Thursday, with the benchmark KSE-100 index shedding 1,733.6 points, or 1.01%, to finish at 170,499. Volume on the index was 315 million shares; the All-Share Index dropped 1.08% to 103,103.

The index opened stronger and touched an intraday high of 172,491 before selling accelerated in the second half, as per KTrade. It bottomed at 170,418.

Commercial banks, cement, oil and gas exploration, power and refinery stocks led the decline. UBL was the largest point drag (about −200 points), followed by LUCK, MARI, HUBC and NBP.

Read: Oil prices fall as Iran says it is open to diplomacy to end the war

Brent crude moved toward $107 a barrel, keeping geopolitical and macroeconomic concerns elevated. That reversed much of Wednesday’s 830-point gain, which had been supported by hopes around US-Iran talks and the arrival of an IMF mission.

A genuine structural positive did not save the session.

National Refinery (NRL), Attock Refinery (ATRL) and Cnergyico (CNERGY) signed upgrade agreements with Inter State Gas Systems (ISGS) under the amended brownfield refinery policy — part of a roughly $6billion modernisation push aimed at Euro-V fuels and lower import dependence. Refinery stocks still closed lower with the broader market.