ISLAMABAD   -   The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) experienced a significant downtrend on the last business day of the week, driven by increased selling pressure as investors moved to take profits. This decline caused the PSX to fall below the critical 81,000 points threshold.

Despite starting the day with a strong position, the PSX’s KSE-100 Index plummeted by more than 1,200 points, and reached 80,629 points around noon. This marks a sharp decline from the previous level of 81,373 points at the start of trading on Friday, indicating a loss of 466 points overall. Market analysts attributed the bearish trend to technical corrections and rollovers, which have added to the selling pressure. Stockbrokers noted that investors were keen on securing profits after a period of gains, leading to the increased sell-off.

Just a day ago, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) had reached an unprecedented milestone, with the market crossing the 81,500-point mark for the first time in its history. The 100-index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) turned around to bearish trend on Friday, losing 1,721.97 points, a negative change of 2.10 percent, closing at 80,117.89 points against 81,839.86 points on the last working day.

A total of 479,000,434 shares were traded during the day as compared to 470,310,927 shares the previous day, whereas the price of shares stood at Rs27.851 billion against Rs25.349 billion on the last trading day.

Around 446 companies transacted their shares in the stock market, 91 of them recorded gains and 305 sustained losses, whereas the share price of 50 companies remained unchanged.

The three top trading companies were Waves Home Applications with 36,876,803 shares at Rs10.07 per share, Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim with 30,672,200 shares at Rs41.03 per share and Pak Elektron with 24,821,611 shares at Rs26.38 per share.

Reliance Cotton Spinning Mills Limited witnessed a maximum increase of Rs52.03 per share price, closing at Rs 630.00, whereas the runner-up was Khyber Textile Mills Limited with a Rs30.94 rise in its per share price to Rs363.08. Rafhan Maize Products Company Limited witnessed a maximum decrease of Rs144.43 per share closing at Rs 7,585.57, followed by Nestle Pakistan Limited with a Rs143.47 decline to close at Rs7,005.00.