The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday was dominated by bears that dragged its benchmark KSE-100 index down by nearly 1,000 points.

According to the PSX website, the KSE-100 index fell by 988.47 points to close at 61,705.09, down 1.58 per cent from the previous close of 62,693.56.

Saad Bin Naseer, director of Mettis Global, attributed today’s losses to “mutual fund redemptions” and corporate realising of profits.

“On the other hand, the activity of foreign inflows slowed down due to the holidays,” he said, noting that the downward spiral was specially visible after the Supreme Court’s decision to grant bail to former prime minister Imran Khan.

On a positive note, Naseer added that the market would perform once again when the corrective stage was over.

Arif Habib Corporation’s Ahsan Mehanti said stocks had fallen sharply late in the session due to “pre-poll uncertainty and major concerns for surging industrial power tariff to resolve power sector circular debt crises”.

He further said that “over leverage and high leverage cost at the stock exchange played a catalyst role in bearish close”.

Mohammad Tahir, head of research at Arif Habib Corporation, said the stock market remained under pressure amid profit-taking, “heating up of the political climate” and the lack of participation from foreign investors due to the holiday season.