Profit-taking pulls stocks down from 170k

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) crossed the historical milestone of 170,000 points on Wednesday, but it could not hold the fresh peak and fell gradually to close trading on a flat note. Investors were inclined to book profits at significantly higher valuations of equities, which dragged the market down from the intra-day high of 170,698 earlier in the session to the intra-day low of 169,239 towards the close of trading. A day ago, the benchmark KSE-100 index had surged by 1,153 points to the all-time high of 169,456 on the back of loan approvals by the International Monetary Fund and robust buying by mutual funds. Though there were other encouraging factors as well like a 9% rise in remittances from overseas Pakistanis to $16 billion in Jul-Nov 2025, increase in margins for oil marketing firms and petroleum dealers and a Rs2.5 billion bailout for PIA Holding Co, the stock market could not sustain gains on Wednesday and gave in to profit-taking pressure.