Selling pressure was seen at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday, as the benchmark KSE-100 Index closed lower by 367 points.
The KSE-100 started the session positive, hitting an intra-day high of 82,010.10. However, selling pressure dominated the market in the latter hours and pushed the index to an intra-low of 81,107.39.
At close, after some late-session buying, the benchmark index settled at 81,483.64, down by 366.86 points or 0.45%.
“The downward shift was largely driven by profit-taking, particularly in key stocks such as HUBC and EFERT, which reshaped the market sentiment,” brokerage house Topline Securities said.
A broad sell-off was seen in HUBC, EFERT, MCB, PPL, and BAFL, it added.
Experts said investors resorted to profit-taking after days of a bullish trend.
Investors are also awaiting the release of funds from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as the IMF Executive Board is scheduled to take Pakistan’s 37-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of about $7 billion on its agenda on September 25.
On Monday, PSX’s benchmark KSE-100 Index witnessed some profit-taking and closed the day below 82,000 after losing 224 points to settle at 81,850.50.
The Board of Directors of Mari Petroleum Company Limited (MARI), one of Pakistan’s largest E&P companies, approved an investment of Rs10 billion (approximately $36 million) to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary focused on technology-driven ventures.
Citing economic hardships, the Board of Directors (BoD) of Amreli Steels Limited (ASTL) decided to temporarily suspend operations at the SITE Rolling Mill (SRM) in Karachi.
In another development, the Organic Meat Company Limited (TOMCL) said it had secured a $12-million contract from China for the supply of frozen cooked beef.
The company, engaged in the processing, sale and export of halal meat and allied products, shared the development in its notice to the PSX on Tuesday.
Globally, Asian stocks rose on Tuesday to their highest in more than two and half years, boosted by a slew of Chinese stimulus measures while expectations for more U.S. rate cuts kept risk sentiment aloft and the dollar under pressure.
In an eagerly awaited press conference, China’s top financial regulators unveiled a slate of measures, saying it would cut bank reserves by 50 basis points while reducing mortgage rates to try to spur sluggish economic growth.
The moves sent Chinese stocks higher, with the blue-chip CSI300 Index opening 1% higher, while the broader Shanghai Composite index was also up 1% at the open.
That pushed MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan 0.41% higher to 588.43, levels last seen in April 2022.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee recorded marginal improvement against the US dollar on Tuesday, appreciating 0.03% in the inter-bank market. At close, the currency settled at 277.80, a gain of Re0.07 against the US dollar.
Volume on the all-share index decreased to 369.62 million from 400.31 million on Monday.
The value of shares declined to Rs17.06 billion from Rs18.69 billion in the previous session.
WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 39.36 million shares, followed by Pace (Pak) Ltd with 22.59 million shares, and Hub Power Co.XD with 21.24 million shares.
Shares of 427 companies were traded on Tuesday, of which 127 registered an increase, 246 recorded a fall, while 54 remained unchanged.
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