PSX Falls Over 800 Points in Early Trade as Selling Pressure Hits KSE-100

KARACHI, PAKISTAN — WEB DESK: The Pakistan Stock Exchange opened the week under renewed selling pressure on Monday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index falling more than 800 points during the opening minutes of trading.

At around 9:40am, the benchmark stood at 167,312.97 points, down 842.52 points or 0.50% from the previous close.

Selling was visible across several major sectors, including commercial banks, cement, automobile assemblers, oil and gas exploration companies, oil marketing companies, power generation and refineries.

The weakness followed a difficult previous week for Pakistani equities, when the KSE-100 lost around 2,610 points, or 1.5%, to finish at 168,155.49 points.

Investor sentiment during the previous week was affected by geopolitical uncertainty, stalled US-Iran negotiations, volatility in global fixed-income markets and concerns over Pakistan’s widening trade deficit.

The latest session began with investors continuing to assess domestic economic developments alongside movements in international financial and commodity markets.

Pakistan’s ongoing engagement with the International Monetary Fund also remains an important factor for market sentiment.

The IMF has shared the first draft of the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies with Pakistani authorities as negotiations progress towards a potential staff-level agreement.

International markets, meanwhile, are assessing softer US employment data and changing expectations surrounding the Federal Reserve’s next interest-rate decision.

The selling pressure at the PSX was broad rather than concentrated in a single sector, reflecting a cautious start to the new trading week.

The previous session had already seen weak market breadth, with 321 stocks declining, 128 advancing and 120 remaining unchanged.

Official PSX data for that session showed total market volume of approximately 493.96 million shares, with traded value at around Rs17.49 billion.

Monday’s market remains active, meaning the KSE-100 level could change significantly before the closing bell.

Investors will be watching whether the benchmark can recover from its early losses or whether selling pressure pushes the index further below the 168,000-point level during the session.