A bearish trend continued to prevail at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Wednesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index plunging 337 points to close at 43,353.

The index showed mixed activity during the first half of the session, but saw a steep decline in the second half. It reached a day's high of 43,782 points during the first half, whereas it hit a day's low of 43,216 points near the close of the session.

In all, 207 million shares worth Rs7.8 billion changed hands during the session. Of the 361 traded scrips, 77 advanced, 270 declined and 14 remained unchanged.

A Topline Securities report held profit-taking — due to political instability— responsible for the bearish spell at the bourse.

According to the report, the increasing pressure on foreign exchange reserves also influenced the market. "Sector-wise data indicates that the cement sector eroded 112 points from the index, followed by the oil and gas marketing and fertilizer sectors that cumulatively took away 101 index points."

Overall, communication scrips dominated trading with 27.3m shares traded, while the chemical and food and personal care products sectors followed with 22.3m and 20.3m shares changing hands.

Volumes were led by:

• Unity Foods Ltd: 11.5m shares traded [-4.48pc];

• Fauji Foods Ltd: 11.4m shares traded [-4.98pc];

• K-Electric Ltd: 10.7m shares traded [-2.74pc];

• WorldCall Telecom: 9.7m shares traded [-4.25pc];

• Azgard Nine: 9.6m shares traded [-1.38pc].