The KSE-100 remained on the backfoot on Wednesday as investors, concerned over inflation outlook and the appointment of the caretaker cabinet, resorted to offloading their holdings.

The benchmark index started the day positive, hitting an intra-day high of 48,614.47, but profit-taking, especially in energy and fertiliser sectors, pushed the index into negative territory.

At close, the KSE-100 settled at 48,146.44, down 0.86% or 419.31 points.

Euphoria over the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme and breathing space provided by inflows from the UAE and Saudi Arabia led to the KSE-100 Index gaining over 15% in a little over one-and-a-half months.

However, a massive 15% increase in the price of petrol over the last few weeks, and high inflation outlook dimmed positive sentiment at the PSX.

On Tuesday, trading on the KSE-100 had remained choppy throughout the day, allowing the index to close with a little gain of 0.29%.

“Negative sentiments prevailed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Indices traded in red for most part of the day, while investor participation remained low,” brokerage house Capital Stake said in its market report.

Sectors painting the benchmark KSE 100 index in red included, oil and gas exploration (118.60pts), fertiliser (83.67pts) and banking (47.64pts).

Company-wise, OGDC, FFC, and POL were top negative contributors.

The refinery sector lost 2.03% in its cumulative market capitalisation, according to the brokerage house.

On the economic front, total debt of the central government surged to Rs60.84 trillion in June 2023, compared to Rs47.83 trillion in June 2022, data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed on Wednesday.

The output of large scale manufacturing industries declined by 10.26 percent during the fiscal year 2022-23 when compared with the same period of 2021-22, said the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

Meanwhile, downward trajectory of the Pakistani rupee continued against the US dollar, as it depreciated 1.16% in the inter-bank market on Wednesday. At close, the rupee settled at 294.93, registering a decline of Rs3.42, as per the SBP.

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 194.5 million from 251.6 million on Tuesday.

The value of shares fell further to Rs7.6 billion from Rs9 billion in the previous session.

K-Electric Limited remained the volume leader with 19.3 million shares, followed by Dewan Motors with 14.11 million shares and Oil & Gas Dev. with 10.96 million shares.

Shares of 339 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 88 registered an increase, 227 recorded a fall, and 24 remained unchanged.