KARACHI: Heavy profit-taking was observed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index falling 2,959.97 points, or 1.75%, to 166,030.10 at one point during intra-day trading.
However, a late comeback after 2 pm, significantly depleted the dent. At the end of trading, the benchmark index settled at 167,752.40, down 1,237.67 points, or 0.73%, against the run of previous week’s play.
Selling pressure was seen in key sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, and power generation and refinery. Index-heavy stocks such as ARL, HUBCO, MARI, OGDC, PPL, POL, PSO, SSGC, SNGP, MCB, MEBL, and UBL traded in negative territory.
Sana Tawfik of Arif Habib Limited attributed the decline to profit-taking and cited factors including the rise in trade deficit and inflation. She noted that the start of the October results season and a successful conclusion of the ongoing IMF review could provide support to the market.
Pakistan also recorded the fastest decline in sovereign default risk globally, according to Bloomberg, now standing second worldwide after Türkiye.
During the previous week, the KSE-100 Index had closed at an all-time high of 168,990.06 points, up 4.1% week-on-week. JS Global Capital reported that this represents the strongest nine-month performance for the index since 2009, driven by investor activity across sectors and improving macroeconomic indicators.
