KARACHI: The Pakis­tan Stock Exchange (PSX) came under heavy selling pressure on Tuesday, on the eve of the State Bank’s monetary policy announ­cement, with the benchmark KSE-100 index plu­nging 1,415 points amid concerns over corporate earnings, political noise, and economic uncertainty.

Trading began on a strong note, with the index climbing as much as 951 points in early hours, fuelled by optimism over a potential trade-tariff deal with the United States. The KSE-100 touched an intraday high of 140,331 — up 0.68 per cent — as investors hoped for positive signals ahead of the policy meeting.

However, the optimism quickly faded. Profit-taking and sector rotation took centre stage as the index failed to sustain momentum beyond the psychological barrier of 140,000 points. Heavy selling ensued, dragging the market to an intraday low of 1,743 points before the index settled at 137,964, marking a net decline of 1,415 points or 1.02pc.

Market sentiment was further dented by uncertainty surrounding the earnings announcement of Engro Fertilisers, which was postponed until Wednesday morning. Investors grew wary amid expectations of weaker-than-anticipated results and dividends, triggering a broader selloff across related stocks.

Topline Securities repo­rted that major decliners included Engro Corpo­ra­tion, Engro Fertilisers, United Bank, Habib Bank, and Hub Power, which collectively shaved off 833 points from the index. On the other hand, Fauji Fertiliser, Ghani Glass, and Meezan Bank added a combined 190 points.

Market activity remai­ned robust, with trading volumes reaching 603 million shares and total turnover clocking in at Rs32.6bn. Telecard Ltd led the volume charts with 38.7 million shares traded.

Ali Najib, Deputy Head of Trading at Arif Habib Ltd, noted that the market witnessed a “profit-taking-cum-sector-switching day” ahead of the central bank’s Monetary Policy Commit­tee meeting sche­duled for Wednesday. Acc­ording to an AHL survey, the street expects a 50 basis point cut in the policy rate.

Among notable corporate developments, Fauji Fertiliser Company (FFC) announced its 2QCY25 results, posting earnings per share of Rs17.69 — a 15pc increase year-on-year — and a dividend of Rs12 per share, outperforming expectations due to stronger-than-forecast other income.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said the bearish close was attr­ibuted to pre-policy uncertainty, futures rollover pres­sure, rupee instability, and rising political noise.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2025