The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed another negative session on Tuesday, as its benchmark KSE-100 closed lower by over 350 points ahead of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting due this week.

The KSE-100 hit an intra-day high of 45,902.72 but concerns over the key policy rate ensured investors opted to offload holdings.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 45,508.40, down by 357.33 points or 0.78%.

“It was a lackluster day for Pakistan’s equities market, characterised by mixed sentiments and notably low trading volumes. However, investors chose to take profits,” brokerage house Topline Securities stated in its post-session report.

Banks, E&P, and cement sectors contributed negative points, with OGDC, MCB, DAWH, LUCK, and BAHL being the major laggards on Tuesday, collectively losing 181 points, according to the brokerage house.

On Monday, the KSE-100 Index had closed lower by 147 points on rate hike concerns.

On the economic front, the Pakistani rupee continued to march upwards against the US dollar, appreciating for the fifth consecutive session to settle at 299.89 in the inter-bank market on Tuesday.

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 126.34 million from 213.2 million on Monday.

The value of shares declined to Rs4.987 billion from Rs8.195 billion in the previous session.

Hub Power Co. remained the volume leader with 11.87 million shares, followed by WorldCall Telecom with 9.781 million shares and Treet Corp with 7.144 million shares.

Shares of 294 companies were traded on Tuesday, of which 73 registered an increase, 196 recorded a fall, and 25 remained unchanged.