The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday saw bears rule the bourse as the benchmark KSE-100 shares index shed 991 points to close at 48,972 compared to 49,963 points at close of the last trading session.

Profit-taking and panic over media speculations that the Trump administration would extend its visa suspension to other countries, including Pakistan, saw investors abandon their positions.

The day's high was recorded at 50,342 points as the market opened on a positive note, but the rally lasted only for a few minutes. The benchmark index recorded a day's low of 48,823 points.

Losers dominated gainers, with the share price of only 84 companies closing in the black, compared to 335 stocks that landed in the red. Shares of total 430 companies were traded, of which 11 stocks remained unchanged.

The volume traded decreased significantly to 389.7 million shares from 597.6 million shares in the previous trading session, whereas trading value also decreased to Rs20.3 billion as compared to Rs28.6bn in the earlier session.

K-Electric was the top-traded stock with 54.7 million shares traded, followed by Aisha Steel Mill with 19 million shares and TRG Pak Ltd with 17 million shares.

"Market opened on a positive note as index heavyweight Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) gained to make an intraday high of 3.9 per cent during the initial hours of trade on the back of the news that Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP) has put a hold on five per cent divestment of government's holding in the company," said Nabeel Haroon, an analyst at JS Research.

"Market fell by 2 per cent after news that Trump administration had hinted that the recent suspension imposed on travel might be extended to Pakistan. Furthermore there were unconfirmed reports that local investors were selling due to heavy leverage positions," said another analyst Hammad Aman, Manager Equity Sales at Topline Securities .