KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday experienced significant selling pressure due to rising tensions in the Middle East.

This situation was sparked by Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, which caused considerable material and human losses. Tehran has pledged to retaliate with full force.

Ali Najib, Deputy Head of Trading Arif Habib Ltd, said the PSX witnessed a sharp correction as the benchmark KSE-100 index dropped by 1,949.55 points or 1.57pc, closing at 122,143.57.

The market reacted to heightened geopolitical tensions following last night`s Israeli strikes onvarious military and nuclear facilities insideIran.

Theindexopenedinthered and quickly extended losses, hitting an intradaylow of 121,605 points, down by as much as 2,489points, amid broad-based selling pressure.

Heavyweight blue-chip stocks in the fertiliser, cement, banking, and technology sectors bore the brunt of the sell-off.

Topline Securities said the index traded mainly in a negative zone during the trading session, in line with the slump in international and regional markets.

The top negative contributors to the index were Engro Holdings, Fauji Fertiliser, Lucky Cement, Bank Al-Habib, Meezan Bank, Systems Ltd, and Pakistan Petroleum, which collectively accountedfor 863 points loss.

Market participation weakened as trading volume fell 5.49pc to 968.34m shares, while the traded value plunged 41.51pc to Rs29.55n day-on-day.