The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday witnessed selling pressure despite initial bullish momentum with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing over 1,700 points.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 182,340.38, a decline of 1789.20 or 0.97%.
Selling pressure was seen across major sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration firms and oil marketing companies. Heavyweight stocks such as OGDC, MARI, PPL, PSO, SSGC, HBL, MEBL and NBP all ended the session in negative territory.
Over the preceding week, the Pakistan Stock Exchange experienced heightened volatility amid geopolitical tensions, rising domestic interest rates, external trade pressures and mixed sectoral trends. Despite these headwinds, selective strength in certain sectors helped offset losses, leaving the market broadly stable.
As a result, the benchmark KSE-100 Index ended the week nearly flat, closing at 184,129.58 points. This represented a marginal decline of 44.90 points compared to the previous week’s close of 184,174.48 points.
Meanwhile, Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Jameel Ahmad defended the central bank’s tight monetary stance despite decline in country’s inflation.
Jameel maintains that the actions of the central bank should be proactive, timely and highly effective to enable it to achieve the ultimate objective.
