The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued to slide on the second consecutive day on Tuesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged 192 points to 41,292.
The index showed a steep decline in the first half to touch a bottom of 40,914 points, but recouped some losses in the second half. The market opening at 41,483 remained the day's high.
Volumes slipped to 143.4 million shares valued at around Rs6.7 billion. Of the 334 traded symbols, 119 advanced, 203 declined and 12 remained unchanged.
Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said: "Stocks closed lower amid pressure in the future contracts rollover week due to investor concerns for prevailing political uncertainty."
He was of the view that institutional support witnessed in selected oil, banking and auto stocks because of rising global crude prices, upbeat financial results and levy of higher regulatory auto import duties.
"Concerns for dismal economic outlook, surging trade deficit and dismal IMF outlook on rising government debt played a catalyst role in bearish close," he added.
Engineering sector dominated the market with around 30m shares traded. Communication and cement sectors followed with and 22m and 10m shares traded, respectively.
Volumes were led by: TRG Pak Ltd: 19.7m shares traded [+1.65pc];
Aisha Steel Mill: 15.6m shares traded [+4.55pc];
Dost Steels Ltd: 7.9m shares traded [-0.66pc];
Engro Polymer: 6.7m shares traded [+0.20pc];
Azgard Nine: 5.7m shares traded [-2.55pc].
