The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) underwent a rollercoaster ride on Wednesday as the KSE-100 index slid over 500 points in early hours before recouping gains in the latter part of the day to end marginally positive.

Investor pessimism over Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) long march, deteriorating macroeconomic cues and delay in resumption of International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme resulted in a negative start to the day. The index at one point dropped close to 600 points.

However, attractive valuations led the recovery.

At close on Wednesday, the KSE-100 settled with an increase of 62.34 points, or 0.15%, to finish at 42,012.66.

KSE-100 falls below 42,000 mark, closes at lowest level since Dec 2020

The market has been gripped by uncertainty after PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s long march kicked off with investors expecting a deteriorating security situation.

“The political uncertainty, especially the long march, led to expected negative reaction in the market,” Arif Habib Limited Vice President of Research Sana Tawfik told Business Recorder.

“(However) the announcement by Saudi Arabia regarding the extension of $3 billion deposit to Pakistan is a positive development,” she said.

A report from Capital Stake said that stocks made a swift recovery during the last hour of trade.

Sector driving the benchmark index upwards included technology and communication (35.08 points), cement (23.71 points) and chemical (22.42 points).

Volume on the all-share index surged to 240.1 million from 169.7 million a day prior. The value of shares traded rose to Rs7.57 billion from Rs5.46 billion recorded in the previous session.

Pakistan Refinery was the volume leader with 21.24 million shares, followed by K-Electric with 15.14 million shares, and WorldCall Telecom with 13.44 million shares.

Shares of 324 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 198 registered an increase, 103 recorded a fall, and 23 remained unchanged.