PSX: Stocks shed over 1,000 points in

Business Recorder reported heavy selling at the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday, with the KSE-100 index losing more than 1,000 points during the session. At 12:45pm the benchmark stood at 175,392.84, down 1,074.15 points or 0.61 per cent. Investors pulled back as worries over supply disruption grew after the United States and Iran traded strikes overnight.

Selling was broad, with car assemblers, cement makers, banks, oil and gas explorers, fuel marketing firms and power producers all under pressure. Index heavyweights HUBCO, MARI, OGDC, PPL, HBL, MCB, MEBL and NBP were trading in negative territory. The index had closed at 176,466.99 on Tuesday, falling 508.69 points or 0.29 per cent.

Weakness abroad added to the pressure, with Asian shares falling after a bond-led selloff spread from world markets and renewed US attacks on Iran pushed oil higher. Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 2.6 per cent and South Korea's KOSPI shed more than 3 per cent, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.7 per cent on Wall Street. Fed funds futures now imply a 67 per cent chance of a 25-basis-point rate increase at the Federal Reserve's meeting ending September 16, up from 39.6 per cent a week earlier.