The Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed yet another trading session marked by selling pressure on Tuesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index dropping below the 40,000 points barrier after losing 707 points to reach 39,617.

The index had dropped to a low of 39,557 towards the tail end of the session, before recovering slightly. Its opening level remained the day's high.

KSE-100 volumes climbed to 93 million, compared to 53m a day earlier. Likewise, the value of shares traded swelled to Rs8.3 billion from Rs5.4bn the previous day. Of the 346 symbols traded, only 81 advanced, 251 declined and 14 remained unchanged.

"Market carried bearish momentum and index names kept sliding during the day as domestic politics topped news and kept investors nervous while absence of immediate triggers and end of earnings season resulted in lower overall activity and less aggressive bids on system," reported Elixir Securities. "The last one hour of trading however saw activity picking up likely due to cherry picking and month-end rebalancing by institutional investors."

Volumes were also higher on the broader market, with a total of 139m shares traded worth Rs9.28bn. Oil and gas marketing companies led volumes, closely followed by commercial banks. Cable and electric goods rounded off the top three.

"The culprits [behind the sell-off] remained the same, led by an uncertain political environment, uncertainty on external account and absence of major triggers (uninteresting corporate results for the September quarter), which created an atmosphere of panic selling," JS Global said in an analyst's note.

Volumes were led by:

1. Pak Elektron: 12.9m shares traded (-3.22pc)

2. TRG Pak Ltd: 10.1m shares traded (-4.99pc)

3. K-Electric: 9.7m shares traded (-2.45pc)

4. Sui North Gas: 8.5m shares traded (-4.40pc)

5. Azgard Nine: 4.5m shares traded (+0.53pc)