PSX remains under pressure as KSE-100 drops over 700 points in early trade

Selling pressure continued unabated at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding over 700 points during the opening hours of trading on Thursday. At 9:35am, the benchmark index was hovering at 163,902.49, a decrease of 723.80 points or 0.44%. Selling was observed in key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, fertilizer, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refinery. Index-heavy stocks, including ARL, HUBCO, MARI, OGDC, PPL, PSO, SSGC, MCB and MEBL, traded in the red. Federal Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has said that Pakistan will hold detailed discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the third economic review under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme, while dismissing concerns about the rollover of deposits from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).