PSX closes lower amid pre-budget uncertainty

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained under pressure on Monday due to pre-budget uncertainty and profit-taking, as its benchmark KSE-100 Index failed to sustain a bullish start and shed over 300 points. The benchmark index began the session positively, hitting an intra-day high of 76,209.97. However, the 76,000 level proved to be a strong selling point, as profit-taking kicked in during later hours, leading to heavy selling pressure after briefly crossing this level during the day. Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp said that pre-budget uncertainty and the terms of a new International Monetary Fund bailout package for tax reforms, hikes in power tariffs, and rupee depreciation spurred negative sentiments among investors. “Weak rupee, falling foreign exchange reserves, and concerns over unsettled dues of Chinese independent power producers (IPPs) also played a catalytic role in the bearish close,” Mr Mehanti said.