ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Stock Exchange turned bearish on Wednesday as the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled with a loss of over 800 points amid selling pressure.
Negative sentiments continued throughout the day, pushing the KSE-100 Index to an intra-day low of 132,326.17.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 132,576.98, a decline of 826.21 points or 0.62%.
Selling was observed in key sectors including commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies, and refinery. Index-heavy stocks, including ARL, NRL, MARI, OGDC, PPL, POL, MCB, MEBL, and UBL, traded in the red.
On Wednesday, a total of 905,743,882 shares were traded as compared to 1,206,524,901 shares on the last trading day, whereas the price of shares stood at PKR 30.530 billion against PKR 42.028 billion on the previous working day.
As many as 477 companies transacted their shares in the stock market, 199 of them recorded gains and 254 met losses, whereas the share price of 24 companies remained unchanged.
On Tuesday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) observed a volatile trading session, with the benchmark index fluctuating sharply between gains and losses before closing nearly flat. The index settled at 133,403.19 points, posting a marginal gain of 33 points, or 0.02%.
On the global front, the US dollar hovered near a two-and-a-half-week high against major currencies on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, copper prices surged to a record high overnight after US President Donald Trump escalated his trade war by threatening to impose a 50% tariff on the metal.
Trump also signalled that new tariffs on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals were imminent.
These announcements weighed heavily on Wall Street, which closed lower on Tuesday, with futures pointing to continued weakness on Wednesday.
In the Asia-Pacific region, stock markets showed mixed performance as investors processed the latest developments in US trade policy. Japan and South Korea—key US trading partners—face an August 1 deadline to finalise a trade agreement or risk new tariff hikes.
However, Trump has given conflicting messages about the flexibility of that deadline.
