KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) came under renewed selling pressure on Wednesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index opening sharply lower as investors continued to offload shares following Tuesday’s bearish close.
The negative sentiment carried over from the previous session, during which the benchmark index lost more than 600 points amid widespread profit-taking and cautious investor sentiment after Monday’s record rally.
Market participants remained wary over the sustainability of recent gains, prompting another round of selling at the start of Wednesday’s trade.
Within the opening minutes, the KSE-100 Index plunged 1,212.42 points (0.69%) to 176,411.46, reflecting broad-based weakness across key sectors.
The bearish trend was accompanied by weak market breadth, with 226 stocks declining against 113 advancing, while 224 issues remained unchanged. More than 44.23 million shares were traded in 22,958 transactions, with a turnover of over Rs2.0 billion.
Although the benchmark managed to trim part of its losses over the next five minutes, the market remained firmly in negative territory. By 9:45am, the KSE-100 Index was down 1,113.95 points (0.63%) at 176,509.93, indicating that bargain hunting had emerged in select counters but was insufficient to reverse the broader downtrend.
Trading activity gathered pace during the period, with volumes increasing to 61.33 million shares worth Rs2.75 billion, while the number of trades rose to 32,735.
However, market breadth deteriorated further, with 248 stocks declining compared with 121 gainers, underscoring persistent selling pressure.
The weakness was visible across the broader market as well. The All Share Index shed 575.45 points (0.54%), the KSE-30 Index fell 339.05 points (0.64%), while the KMI-30 and BKTI indices declined 0.61% and 0.86%, respectively, pointing to broad-based losses across sectors.
Market analysts attributed the continued decline to profit-taking after Monday’s exceptional surge, coupled with a cautious approach by investors ahead of key economic developments and corporate earnings announcements.
They noted that the market is currently undergoing a consolidation phase after recent sharp swings, with participants preferring to reduce exposure until fresh positive triggers emerge.
