Profit-taking and consolidation of gains continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as the benchmark KSE-100 Index fell over 950 points on Tuesday.

Negativity persisted at the bourse throughout the trading session. At close, the benchmark index settled at 47,429.83, a decline of 956.42 points or 1.98%.

On Monday, the KSE-100 Index had closed lower nearly 200 points as well, settling at 48,386.25, as investors weighed an upcoming new refinery policy and growing fears of a delay in Pakistan’s general elections.

On Tuesday, across-the-board selling was witnessed with index-heavy sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, chemicals, commercial banks, oil and gas manufacturing companies and OMCs trading in the red.

Experts said profit-taking is being witnessed by the market players after a massive rally that started with the staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“The investors have adopted a cautious approach as they seek stability at the political front,” Sana Tawfik, analyst at Arif Habib Limited, told Business Recorder.

Sector-wise, E&Ps remained under stress.

“The market expected that the issue of circular debt in the energy sector would be addressed by the government, which was also an IMF condition, however, it seems unlikely now as the government tenure is reported to end tomorrow,” said Tawfik.

Brokerage house Capital Stake in a report said the lack of certainty on political front along with the possibility of dissolution of assemblies drove the market south.

Company-wise, OGDCL, PPL, PSO, and HBL were top negative contributors.

Sectors dragging the KSE-100 lower included E&P (268 points), banking (108 points) and cement (94 points), brokerage house Ismail Iqbal Securities said in its market report.

On the economic front, the Pakistani rupee sustained back-to-back losses against the US dollar with a depreciation of 0.17% in the inter-bank market.

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 336.1 million from 381.8 million on Monday.

The value of shares traded also declined to Rs12.5 billion from Rs14.5 billion in the previous session.

Cnergyico PK remained the volume leader with 28.3 million shares, followed by Oil & Gas Development Company Limited with 27.8 million shares and K-Electric Limited with 24.6 million shares.

Shares of 343 companies were traded on Tuesday, of which 49 registered an increase, 278 recorded a fall, and 16 remained unchanged.