Bears ripped into the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) early Tuesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 index plunging over 1,000 points within the first hour of trading to hit the day's low of 41,063.

However, renewed interest from institutional buyers helped the index recover to touch a high of 42,291 points before closing with a total loss of 170 points, or 0.40 per cent, at 41,983.

"[...] Hefty buying in heavyweight stocks during the latter hours resulted in a major recovery in the KSE-100 Index," reported an analyst note from JS Research.

"We believe negativity in the market continues on the back of political uncertainties and concerning economic indicators. Also, redemptions from mutual funds are likely to cause further selling pressure," it added.

Nearly 112 million shares of KSE-100 scrips, worth Rs9.74 billion in total, were traded during the day. Shares of 354 companies in all were traded, of which 98 advanced, 242 declined and 14 remained unchanged.

The cement sector dominated the day's trading with 25.7m shares traded. Engineering and oil and gas followed with 24.5m and 21.5m shares traded.

Volumes were led by:

Azgard Nine: 15.2m shares traded [-5.36pc]

Aisha Steel Mill: 14.2m shares traded [-2.37pc]

Sui South Gas: 11.4m shares traded [-4.12pc]

K-Electric Ltd: 10.4m shares traded [0.00pc]

TRG Pak Ltd: 9.9m shares traded [-0.81pc]