Selling pressure weighed on KSE-100 index on Wednesday as index lost nearly 225 points to ultimately close at 33,932-mark, mainly due to the absence of positive triggers and profit-taking activity. Investors sold off equities ahead of Eid holidays as market was expecting technical correction after index crossed 34,000 mark on Tuesday. Banking sector also witnessed the strain after credit rating agency Moody’s linked any downgrade in ratings of Pakistan’s five big banks with risks to their credit profiles emanating from the government’s potentially weakening creditworthiness in case of default on its private debts.Moody’s said it placed on review for downgrade the B3 long-term local-currency deposit ratings of Allied Bank Limited (ABL), Habib Bank Ltd. (HBL), MCB Bank Limited (MCB), National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and United Bank Ltd. (UBL). The KSE-100 Index started the day on a positive note, gaining 65.60 points to touch its intraday high at 34,224.15. However, the index failed to maintain its flight and slipped 371.59 points to mark its intraday low at 33,786.96.The Index traded in a range of 434.82 points or 1.27 percent of previous close. Of the 92 traded companies in the Kse-100 Index, 28 scrips gained while 63 descended, while 1 remained unchanged. Total volume traded for the index was 107.17 million shares while overall market volumes shrunk from 247.63 million shares in the last session to 165.09 million shares.Average traded value followed suit, declining from $65.3 million to $42.7 million. The volume chart was led by Hum Network Limited, followed by Hascol Petroleum Limited and TRG Pakistan Limited, exchanging 11.72 million, 11.30 million and 9.50 million shares, respectively. Sectors that drove the benchmark index south included oil & gas exploration with 73.81 points, fertilizer with 65.95 points and banking with 42.87 points. Among the companies, Engro Corporation Limited dented the index by 28.81 points, Fauji Fertilizer Company Limited by 28.09 pointsand Pak Petroleum Limited by 27.77 points, Dawood Hercules Corporation Limited with 22 points and Habib Bank Limited with 19 points. The pharmaceutical sector lost 2.26pc in its cumulative market capitalization after becoming the top gaining sector on Tuesday boosting the index, with Searle Company Limited losing 3.81%, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Limited losing 2.52%, Ferozsons Laboratories Limited losing 7.50% and AGP Limited losing 4.49%. Meanwhile, on the economic front Investors are hoping Pakistan to get debt relief from Paris Club debt year to relief some pressure off from the economy. The Group of 20 leading economies and the Paris Club, an informal group of state creditors coordinated by France’s finance ministry, agreed last month to freeze the debt payments of the 77 poorest countries this year to free up cash for them to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The countries likely to sign off shortly include Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Pakistan and Mauritania, another source familiar with the matter said. Usually, the Paris Club asks borrowing governments to seek the same debt repayment conditions from private-sector creditors. Global Markets Major stocks picked up global markets after investors sentiments stayed attuned to the latest coronavirus developments with efforts to develop a vaccine and the prospects for economic recovery in focus. It comes as many countries tentatively ease lockdown measures. Investors tread cautiously as Hopes of an effective coronavirus vaccine have been shaken, however, as several vaccine experts said the pharmaceutical company Moderna – which announced Monday that its potential Covid-19 vaccine appeared to be generating an immune response in human trial subjects – did not provide enough information to determine how effective the vaccine. At Wall Street, Stocks rose sharply on Wednesday, lifted in part by solid retail earnings, as traders continue to grapple with the market’s wild moves from this week.The Dow Jones Industrial Averagetraded 400 points higher, or 1.7%. The S&P 500 gained 1.8% while the Nasdaq Composite advanced about 2%.Shares of MGM Resorts, United Airlines and Live Nation Entertainment all rose more than 4%. Those companies have all taken a beating this year amid the global economic shutdown. In Europe, markets picked up the pace as Frankfurt’s DAX gained 1.33% followed by England’s FTSE-100 closing 0.97% and CAC-40 in France edged higher by 0.86%. In Asia, Stocks remained mixed on Wednesday as China’s benchmark lending rate was left unchanged.n Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.79% to close at 20,595.15.South Korea’s Kospiended its trading day 0.46% higher at 1,989.64. In China, stocks edged lower on the day, with the Shanghai composite0.51% lower at around 2,883.74Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dipped 0.05%, as of its final hour of trading.