Profit-taking maintains grip as KSE-100 sheds over 1,500 points

A day after massive buying, a volatile session was observed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing over 1,500 points on Tuesday.

The market kicked off trading on a positive note, with the KSE-100 Index hitting an intra-day high of 115,036.49.

However, gains were erased as investors soon resorted to profit-taking dragging the KSE-100 to an intra-day low of 112,294.42.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 112,414.80, a decrease of 1,509.61 points or 1.33%.

Selling pressure was witnessed in key sectors including automobile, cement, chemical, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation, and refineries.

Index-heavy stocks including HUBCO, MARI, OGDC, PPL, PSO, SHEL, HBL, MCB, and NBP traded in the red.

“The market’s downturn was primarily driven by concerns over rising leverage positions, which heightened risk perceptions,” brokerage house Topline Securities said.

“This, combined with increasing borrowing costs, compelled investors to trim their portfolios. Furthermore, the approaching last few days of December contract added additional pressure on market participants, resulting in cautious and selective trading behavior,” it added.

On Monday, massive buying was witnessed at the PSX as the benchmark KSE-100 Index surged over 4,400 points, marking the second largest single-day increase point-wise, to settle at 113,924.41.

Globally, Asian stocks edged up on Tuesday, though moves were subdued in a holiday-curtailed week. The greenback held near a two-year high, helped by elevated U.S. Treasury yields as investors prepared for fewer Federal Reserve rate cuts in 2025.

After a recent run of central bank decisions, this week is much quieter, with Japan’s October meeting minutes and Australia’s December minutes released on Tuesday morning, providing more details on their decisions to hold rates at the time. There are no Fed speeches and U.S. data is of secondary importance.

Otherwise, the themes were largely the same, with the dollar’s strength as a burden for commodities and gold.

It is also a headache for emerging market countries from Brazil to Indonesia that are having to intervene to stop their currencies from falling too far and stoking domestic inflation.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan, rose 0.35% early in the session, tracking Wall Street’s overnight gain.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee registered marginal improvement against the US dollar, appreciating 0.04% in the inter-bank market on Tuesday. At close, the currency settled at 278.47 for a gain of Re0.10 against the greenback.

Volume on the all-share index increased to 880.60 million from 857.83 million on Monday.

The value of shares rose to Rs54.45 billion from Rs50.55 billion in the previous session.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 127.41 million shares, followed by Fauji Foods Ltd with 67.13 million shares, and Sui South Gas with 33.56 million shares.

Shares of 456 companies were traded on Tuesday, of which 129 registered an increase, 288 recorded a fall, while 39 remained unchanged.