The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed selling pressure on Wednesday as its benchmark KSE-100 Index closed lower by 308 points after three consecutive positive sessions.

The KSE-100 started Wednesday’s session positive, hitting an intra-day high of 115,773.39.

However, selling pressure in the latter hours pushed the index into the negative territory.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 114,495.71, down by 308.46 points or 0.27%.

“We think the market is in a consolidation phase, due to lack of fresh triggers,” said Intermarket Securities in a note.

The brokerage house argued that the upcoming Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting will be “a key milestone where another large cut of over 100bps or guidance on future stance will determine market direction”.

“The new US administration (coming into office next week) will be keenly watched for any signs of pressure for the release of Imran Khan from jail (however highly unlikely in the near term).”

In the power sector, HUBC drew significant investor interest following news of the federal cabinet’s approval of revised agreements with 14 Independent Power Producers (IPPs), another brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post-market report.

Key gainers included FFC, HUBC, BAFL, GLAXO, and ABOT, collectively contributing 339 points to the index. Conversely, losses in ENGROH, MARI, SRVI, UBL, and SYS collectively wiped out 514 points, it added.

On Tuesday, bullish trend continued as the PSX closed on a positive note with healthy gains on the back of fresh buying, mainly by local investors coupled with institutional support.

In the previous three sessions, the KSE-100 had gained over 2,100 points.

Global markets treaded water on Wednesday ahead of US consumer price data that could potentially lower the possibility of a rate cut this year, while investors waited to see if big bank earnings would match sky-high expectations.

US equity futures were slightly firmer in Asia, with S&P 500 futures up 0.1% and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.2%.

Japan’s Nikkei, gave up earlier gains to be off 0.1%, extending its losing streak to five days.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan, eased 0.1%. China’s blue chips, fell 0.4% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index, dropped 0.3%.

In other news that broke in Asia, the US Securities and Exchange Commission sued tech billionaire Elon Musk for having failed to timely disclose purchasing more than 5% of Twitter’s common stock in 2022.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee recorded a marginal decline against the US dollar, depreciating 0.02% in the inter-bank market on Wednesday. At close, the currency settled at 278.77 after a loss of Re0.05 against the greenback.

Volume on the all-share index increased to 659.43 million from 589.46 million on Tuesday.

The value of shares rose to Rs39.64 billion from Rs32.58 billion in the previous session.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 68.67 million shares, followed by Pak Refinery with 56.86 million shares, and Cnergyico PK with 43.22 million shares.

Shares of 455 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 176 registered an increase, 225 recorded a fall, while 54 remained unchanged.