Karachi: Benchmark KSE-100 index lost 501.46 points. KSE-100 started session with some buying and hit an intra-day high of 73,915.45.

However, cautious investors resorted to profit-taking in latter hours and pushed index into negative territory. At close, benchmark index settled at 73,252.56, down by 501.46 points or 0.68 percent. Volume on all-share index decreased to 350.72 million from 559.55 million session ago.

Value of shares plunged to Rs 10.18 billion from Rs 20.21 billion in previous session. Pervez Ahmed Co was volume leader with 57.42 million shares, followed by Amtex Limited with 33.74 million shares and WorldCall Telecom with 31.27 million shares.Shares of 434 companies were traded, of which 133 registered an increase, 241 recorded fall while 60 remained unchanged.Decline was significantly impacted by HUBC, FFC, MEBL, OGDC and PPL, which collectively subtracted 254 points from index. In contrast, SRVI, PSO, SYS, NATF and MTL contributed combined 65 points to index’s positive side, according to report.“

Today’s selling pressure can be attributed to investor concerns over potential tax increases on dividends, capital gains, and interest income in the upcoming budget, as well as uncertainty surrounding the monetary policy announcement scheduled for later today,” brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post-market report.Market experts said negativity at bourse comes amid uncertainty over measures to be taken by government in upcoming budget. Globally, Asian stocks sank on Monday as traders heavily pared back on bets for Federal Reserve rate cuts this year given still-tight US labour market, while snap election call in France sparked wider political concerns and weighed on euro.Trading was thinned in Asia with Australia, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan out for public holidays, but MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan still slumped 0.46 percent.