Pakistan Stock Exchange closes lower amid profit-taking

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange began rollover week on a volatile note on Monday, with profit-taking dragging the benchmark index lower.

The KSE-100 swung sharply, rising as much as 586 points before tumbling 735 points, and eventually settled 678 points, or 0.45 per cent, down at 148,815.

“Stocks closed bearish amid institutional profit-taking in an overbought market. Flat government bond yields, foreign outflows, concerns over external debt, state-owned enterprise losses, and uncertainty over the IMF’s next review all played a role in the negative close,” said Ahsan Mehanti, CEO of Arif Habib Commodities.

BAFL, NBP, SEARL, and PABC provided a combined 92-point cushion, but losses in BAHL, SYS, MEBL, HBL, and LUCK wiped 394 points off the index.

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Commercial banks, technology, and oil and gas exploration companies were the major laggards, shedding 457 points, according to Ismail Iqbal Securities. Pearl Securities added that selling pressure stemmed from investors booking gains after recent strong rallies.

Trading activity remained subdued versus the prior session, with volumes at 691 million shares and turnover at Rs26.3 billion. NBP, SEARL, PSO, OGDC, and MEBL led in traded value, while KOSM topped the volume chart with 113.8 million shares.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s IT sector achieved a new milestone in July 2025, recording all-time-high monthly exports of $354 million, marking a 24 per cent year-on-year (YoY) and 5 per cent month-on-month (MoM) increase, according to official data released today.

The figure surpasses the 12-month average of $317 million, signaling sustained growth momentum in the country’s digital economy.

The daily average of IT export proceeds, however, dipped slightly to $15.4 million in July, compared to $17.8 million in June. A significant contributor to this growth came from the computer services category, which surged 10 per cent MoM to reach $311 million, largely driven by software consultancy exports that rose to $104 million from $96 million in the previous month.

Syed Raza Hassan