The bearish trend continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing 741 points, or 1.77 per cent, to close at 41,223 points.

The index lost 281 points within the first few minutes of trading with Monday's close of 41,974 remaining the day's high. The downward spiral continued with the market hitting the day's low of 41,046 points towards the day's close.

Pundits attributed the continued sell-off to the US's decision to seek a hefty penalty for HBL Bank, one of the largest lenders in the country, for failing to comply with regulations in the US. Global tensions over a new missile test by North Korea contributed to the negativity.

Close to 130 million shares worth Rs5.99 billion of a total of 349 companies were traded on the market. Stocks of only 59 companies advanced, while 277 declined and 13 remained unchanged.

Commercial banks dominated the day's trading with 19.2m shares traded, while technology and textile scrips followed with 192m and 17.7m shares traded respectively.

Volumes were led by:

TRG Pak Ltd: 16.0m shares traded [-4.70pc]

Azgard Nine: 13.9m shares traded [-6.72pc]

Sui South Gas: 7.7m shares traded [+2.34pc]

K-Electric Ltd: 6.2m shares traded [-2.09pc]

Aisha Steel Mill: 6.2m shares traded [-3.26pc]