Concerns over Pakistan's reclassification by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) and higher coal prices drove the benchmark KSE-100 Index to an over three-month low with volumes registering a minor increase at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday.

Investors have adopted a cautious wait-and-see approach ahead of the MSCI decision to re-classify Pakistan from the Emerging Markets Index to Frontier Markets that is expected early Wednesday.

At close, the KSE-100 finished with a drop of 188.56 points or 0.40% to settle at 46,729.96. This is the index's lowest level since May 27.

Accumulating 76.32 points, the benchmark KSE-100 recorded an intra-day high of 46,994.84 during the initial hour of trade. However, it found resistance at the 47,000 level yet again.

“The cement sector witnessed aggressive selling owing to higher coal prices after which the sector closed down on an average of 1.45% for the day,” said Topline Securities in its post-market comment.

KSE-100 ends marginally lower amid MSCI decision concerns

Sectors that erased the gains of the KSE-100 index included cement (74.25 points), oil and gas exploration (39.26 points), and automobile assembling (31.53 points).

Volume on the all-share index increased from 417.85 million on Monday to 423.75 million on Tuesday. The value of shares traded during the session, meanwhile, marginally declined to Rs11.29 billion from Rs12.03 billion on Monday.

TPL Corp Limited was the volume leader with 41.82 million shares, followed by Kohinoor Spinning with 33.72 million shares, and Pakistan International Airlines Corp at 29.77 million shares.

Shares of 520 companies were traded on Tuesday, of which 129 registered an increase, 373 recorded a fall, while 18 remained unchanged.