The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued its downward trend for the sixth consecutive session on Wednesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing 1,635.97 points, or 1.02%, to close at 158,465.05.
Investor sentiment remained negative following the failure of talks between Islamabad and Kabul in Istanbul. Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar confirmed that the latest round of discussions had failed to produce a solution, as the Afghan side deviated from the core issue.
The market’s decline was also influenced by mixed corporate results, according to brokerage house Topline Securities. The “corrective phase” at the PSX was accelerated by margin calls on leveraged positions, while volatility remained high due to futures rollover week. Losses were mainly driven by LUCK, UBL, MARI, MCB, and EFERT, which collectively contributed 577 points to the decline. NBP, THALL, BAFL, JVDC, and ILP helped mitigate some of the losses, adding 186 points.
In the past six sessions, the KSE-100 Index has fallen by more than 8,800 points. On Tuesday, a broad-based sell-off saw the index drop by 2,062.78 points, or 1.27%, to close at 160,101.03.
The Pakistani rupee saw a slight gain against the US dollar on Wednesday, closing at 280.96, up by Re0.01 in the inter-bank market.
Volume on the all-share index decreased to 951.84 million shares, from 1,019 million in the previous session. The total value of shares traded increased to Rs41.31 billion, compared to Rs36.94 billion on Tuesday. K-Electric Ltd led the volume with 92.99 million shares, followed by Hascol Petrol (53.92 million shares) and WorldCall Telecom (51.08 million shares). Of the 478 companies traded, 123 saw gains, 314 experienced declines, and 41 remained unchanged.
