After days of buying momentum, selling returned to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding over 2,600 points as investors adopted a cautious stance amid political uncertainty during trading on Tuesday.
At 3:15pm, the benchmark index was hovering at 158,145.28, down 3,393.12 points, or 2.1%.
Selling pressure was observed in key sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refinery. Index-heavy stocks, including HUBCO, MARI, OGDC, POL, PPL, PSO, MCB, MEBL and NBP, traded in the red.
Speaking on the resurgence of selling pressure at the bourse, market analysts pointed out that the prevailing political uncertainty is the main factor driving the negative sentiment.
The Upper House of Parliament on Monday finally approved the much-debated and highly contentious 27th Constitutional Amendment Bill, which grants constitutional protection to the top positions of the armed forces, establishes a federal constitutional court, permits the transfer of high court judges, and introduces several other key amendments and substitutions to the Constitution.
A day after the Senate passed the bill, Minister for Law and Justice Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar tabled the legislation in the National Assembly to amend the Constitution of Pakistan.
Investor sentiments were further dented following a blast outside the district and sessions court building in Islamabad’s G-11 area.
Commenting on the market’s performance, Saad Hanif, an analyst at Ismail Iqbal Securities, said the decline was primarily driven by renewed security concerns following a bomb blast in Islamabad, alongside escalating regional geopolitical tensions.
“The compromise in the security situation has hurt investor sentiment,” Hanif told media.
On Monday, PSX witnessed a strong rally as all major indices closed significantly higher, buoyed by renewed investor optimism, improved trading volumes, and robust corporate activity. The benchmark KSE-100 Index surged by 1,945.50 points, or 1.22%, to settle at 161,538.41.
Internationally, Asian stocks rose on Tuesday while gold and the Nasdaq were basking in their sharpest gains for months, thanks to signs that an end to the US government shutdown was in the offing.
Gold jumped nearly 3% overnight and was comfortably above $4,100 in the Asia morning. The Nasdaq rose 2.3% to recover much of the losses inflicted last week by a bout of nerves around the valuation and profitability of AI firms.
South Korea’s Kospi was also clawing back last week’s falls and advanced 1.3% in early trade, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.4%. Markets in Hong Kong and China were slightly lower by mid-morning.
S&P 500 futures were steady.
The US Senate passed a deal that would restore US federal funding and end the longest shutdown late on Monday.
It now heads to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson has said he would like to pass it as soon as Wednesday and send it on to President Donald Trump to sign it into law.
Prediction markets, such as the online Polymarket, have reopening nearly fully priced in for the end of the week.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 closed up 1.54% for its biggest one-day percentage gain since mid-October, and the Nasdaq notched its largest daily gain since May.
This is an intra-day update
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