After crossing the 189,000 level during the initial hours of trading, selling pressure was observed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding nearly 600 points on Wednesday.
At 1:05pm, the benchmark index was hovering at 188,031.03, a decrease of 590.75 points or 0.31%.
Selling pressure was observed in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, fertiliser, power genration and refinery. Index-heavy stocks ARL, OGDC, PSO, MCB, MEBL and UBL traded in the red.
Analysts attributed the market’s upward momentum, observed earlier during the day, primarily to buying by local mutual funds.
In a key development, repatriation of profits and dividends by foreign investors rose sharply 27% in the first half of the current fiscal year (FY26), highlighting stronger earnings outflows from Pakistan. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Tuesday reported that foreign companies operating in the country repatriated $1.559 billion in profits and dividends during July-December of FY26 compared to $1.226 billion in the same period last year (FY25).
On Tuesday, the PSX concluded trading on a positive note as benchmark indices extended gains amid sustained investor participation. The KSE-100 Index advanced by 860.09 points, or 0.46%, to close at 188,621.78 points.
Globally, Asian stocks extended their losses for a third session on Wednesday, undone by heightened tensions over US threats to acquire Greenland ahead of President Donald Trump’s Davos speech, while a global bond rout appeared to slow for now.
Fears of offshore selling of US assets – the so-called “Sell America” trade that emerged after last year’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcements in April – gripped markets as Wall Street tumbled over 2% overnight and the US dollar suffered its biggest fall in over a month.
That sent investors fleeing to the safety of gold and silver, which both notched record highs.
Trump, however, doubled down on his rhetoric over Greenland, saying there was “no going back” on his goal to control the island, refusing to rule out taking it by force. His threat of tariffs on Europe has also rekindled fears of a global trade war.
The European Union will convene an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the matter, with the long-standing US-EU alliance clearly at risk.
All eyes are now on the World Economic Forum in Davos where Trump is due to deliver a speech on Wednesday.
In early trade, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.3%. Japan’s Nikkei slumped 1.2%, down for the fifth straight day.
This is an intra-day update
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