The Pakistan Stock Exchange received a battering as the KSE-100 Index was down by 330.63 (0.78 percent) after the business resumed Monday for the start of new week.

Barring the initial upward movement in the first few minutes of the session, the index remained in the red zone and could not reverse the slide. That’s why the volume shrank by over 30 percent as only 231,083,659 shares were traded against the last session’s total of 331,721,308.

During the session, the share prices of 235 companies were slashed. Only 106 companies made some gains while no change was recorded in the value of 18 as the KSE-100 Index closed at 42,174.13.

These loses came as the market remained static during the past week with the index losing 25.91 points as a whole in complete contrast with the trend witnessed in July, August and the initial part of this month. It also means the gains made by the market in September has now been reduced to 1,063.20 points. 

The negative trend resulting in this sell-off can be gauged by the fact that the share prices of six out of the top 10 most active stocks were down. Meanwhile, Aisha Steel Mills Limited, Unity Foods Limited and Fauji Foods Limited were the three top active stocks with the trading of 58,910,000, 48,202,000 and 36,014,000 shares respectively. 

On the other hand, the share price of First Paramount Modaraba was down by 11.67 percent, making it the wort performer. The next two on the list were Ravi Textile Mills Limited with 11.40 percent and Pakistan PVC Limited with 8.85 percent reduction.

However, Popular Islamic Modaraba, Modaraba Al-Mali and The Pakistan General Insurance Co Limited saw their share prices going up by 24.94 percent, 16.67 percent and 14.80 percent respectively, making them the three best performers in terms of gains.

The sectors like automobile, cement, oil and gas, chemical and commercial banks continued to be on the losing side.