As the benchmark KSE-100 Index ended the day in the red, losing 0.72 percent, the market came under pressure. The country’s rising number of Covid-19’s Omicron variant cases played a key role to keep the market under pressure. As the day progressed, the tech and cement industries saw a large amount of profit-taking. The index finished Thursday with a loss of 325.59 points, or 0.72 percent, to finish at 45,082.30 points. Coronavirus cases surged to 1,085, the highest since October last year, and the positivity ratio rose to 2.32 percent, putting investors’ concerns at an all-time high. According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the country’s trade deficit increased by 106.4pc during the first half of the current fiscal year 2021-22, from $12.344 billion to $25.478 billion (PBS). With the benchmark index down by 113.63 points, cement was next, followed by oil and gas marketing with an index drop of 85.15 points (26.03 points). All-share index volume fell from 432.06 million on Wednesday to 345.3 million on Thursday, according to the S&P 500 All-Share Index. But the value of shares sold rose from Rs10.29 billion to Rs13.24 billion. WorldCall Telecom had 65.11 million shares, followed by TRG Pakistan Limited with 54.82 million shares, and Unity Foods Limited (R3) with 30.2 million shares in the volume. On Thursday, 360 stocks were traded, with 87 rising, 258 falling, and 15 remaining unchanged.