Selling pressure was observed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding nearly 500 points during the opening minutes of trading on Wednesday.
At 10am, the benchmark index was hovering at 164,293.10, down 483.34 points or 0.29%.
Selling was observed in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refineries. Index-heavy stocks, including ARL, HUBCO, MARI, OGDC, PPL, POL, HBL, MCB and UBL, traded in the red.
On Tuesday, PSX closed lower as profit-taking at higher levels erased an early recovery. The market failed to find fresh triggers to recover Monday’s losses and reverse the broader downward trend witnessed during the previous week. The benchmark KSE-100 Index declined by 347.97 points, or 0.21%, to close at 164,776.44 points
Globally, Asian shares inched higher on Wednesday as those related to artificial intelligence found respite after a selloff, while any gain was tempered by elevated oil prices and caution ahead of US inflation data later in the global day.
Among firms in the AI supply chain, chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix rose more than 2% in South Korea while Kioxia was steady in Japan, recovering some of the previous session’s loss.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.5% after US stocks ended the previous session with a mild loss.
Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.2%, and South Korea’s Kospi added 1.8%.
Sentiment remained cautious, however, with oil prices elevated as concern over energy supplies intensified following Houthi missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia.
This is an intraday update