A bearish trend continued to prevail at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Wednesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding 184 points to close at 44,049.

The benchmark opened higher to hit a day's high of 44,534 points within the first few minutes. The market, however, could not sustain the rally and the index adopted a negative trend for the rest of the session. It hit a day's low of 43,996 points near the close of the session.

In all, 288.6 million shares worth Rs11.9 billion shares changed hands, as compared to 282.5mn shares worth Rs9.5bn traded yesterday. A total of 371 scrips were traded, out of which 189 advanced, 161 declined and 21 remained unchanged.

A Topline Securities's report held profit taking in the oil sector responsible for the negative trend. "Pakistan equities closed down around the 44k level as investors continued booking profits owing to WTI price per barrel declining to US$64 from US$65 a day earlier," the report read.

Selling pressure was also seen in banking stocks, it added.

The chemical sector dominated trading with 47.75m shares traded; cement and communication scrips followed with 39.9m and 34.4m shares traded respectively.

Volumes were led by:

• Dewan Cement: 29.9m shares traded [+2.93pc];

  • Engro Polymer: 26.3m shares traded [+1.82pc];
  • WorldCall Telecom: 19.2m shares traded [0.00pc];
  • Dost Steels Ltd: 19.0m shares traded [-0.08pc];
  • Azgard Nine: 15.8m shares traded [+3.82pc].