A day after witnessing the second-highest gain in terms of points, bearish sentiment returned to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as the benchmark KSE-100 Index registered a loss of over 300 points during trading on Tuesday.

Throughout the trading session, the benchmark index demonstrated volatility within a range of 1,120 points, reaching an intra-day high of 65,333.70 (a gain of 671.92 points) and intra-day low of 64,213.63 (a loss of 448.16 points).

At close, the index settled at 64,349.60 level, a decrease of 312.18 points or 0.48%.

Selling was witnessed with index-heavy sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, chemical, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and refinery sector trading in the red.

On Monday, the bourse kicked off 2024 with a bang, as the benchmark KSE-100 Index jumped over 3.54% or 2,210 points to settle at 64,661.78 level.

In the inter-bank market, the Pakistani rupee ended its 13-session appreciation run against the US dollar, declining 0.01% to settle at 281.89 on Tuesday, the first trading session of 2024.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s trade deficit shrank 34.29% to $11.15 billion in 6MFY24 on account of a significant reduction in imports, a consequence of administratively controlled measures, and a marginal improvement in exports, according to data released on Tuesday by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

Globally, Asian shares started the first trading day of the New Year on a steady footing on Tuesday, as investors returning after a holiday lull looked ahead to fresh trading catalysts from key economic releases later in the week.

Risk appetite was strong after global shares ended 2023 with their biggest annual rise in four years, driven by the prospect that major central banks globally could begin easing rates this year in a major boost for consumers and businesses shackled by high borrowing costs.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.1% in early trade but was still hovering near a five-month high it hit last week.

Meanwhile, volume on the all-share index increased to 671.7 million from 625.1 million a session before.

The value of shares improved to Rs24.5 billion from Rs18.5 billion in the previous session.

K-Electric Ltd was the volume leader with 79.9 million shares, followed by WorldCall Telecom with 46.5 million shares, and B.O.Punjab at 34.9 million shares.

Shares of 378 companies were traded on Tuesday, of which 105 registered an increase, 252 recorded a fall, while 21 remained unchanged.