Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained bearish for the second straight day on Thursday as returns on short-term government papers further increased up to 75 basis points in the latest treasury bills auction, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index plunging 518.13 points (-1.21 percent) to close at 42,237.91 points. The cut-off yield of all treasury bills went up ranging between 55bps to 75bps in the auction held on Wednesday. The cut-off yield of 3-month short term government securities rose by 75 bps to 15.25pc from 14.5pc in the previous auction held on May 18, 2022. Similarly, the cut-off yield for the 6-month MTBs remained 15.25pc, up by 55bps, and for 12-month T-bills it increased by 75bps to 15.5pc. Though the rupee has been on the road to recovery against the US dollar for the last five sessions, investors remained on the sidelines due to hike in cutoff yields. The market opened on a sharp negative note, switched to the green territory for a few minutes only and then remained negative throughout the session. Overall, the benchmark index shed 840.23 points during the last two sessions. The KSE-100 Index moved in a rangeof 689.79 points, showing an intraday high of 42,822.77 points and a low of 42,132.98 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 289.28 points (-0.99 percent) to close at 28,926.27 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index shed 214.56 points (-1.02 percent) to close at 20,784.31 points. A total of 372 companies traded shares in the stock exchange compared to 350 a session earlier. Out of traded companies, shares of 93 closed up, shares of 262 closed down while shares of 17 companies remained unchanged. A total of 92 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index as compared to 95 a session earlier, out of which 14 closed up, 75 closed down and three remained unchanged. The overall market volumes decreased by 37.39 million to 157 million shares. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index increased by 1.79 million to 70.10 million shares. The number of total trades decreased by 180 to 81,287, while the value traded decreased by Rs0.06 billion to Rs5.29 billion. Overall market capitalisation decreased by Rs70.43 billion. Among scrips, PRL topped the volumes with 14.99 million shares, followed by UNITY (10.97 million) and CNERGY (9.87 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included PRL, UNITY, CNERGY, SILK and WTL, which formed over 33 percent of total volumes. In terms of rupee, SAPT remained the top gainer and witnessed an increase of Rs70 (+6.67 percent) per share, closing at Rs1,120. The runner-up remained SFL, the share price of which climbed up by Rs35.01 (+3.18 percent) to Rs1,135. BATA remained the top loser in terms of rupee for the second straight day and witnessed a decrease of Rs126.85 (-6.86 percent) per share, closing at Rs1,723.15, followed by NESTLE, the share price of which fell by Rs105 (-1.82 percent) to close at Rs5,675 per share. The sectors taking the index towards south were commercial banks (106 points), fertilizer (67 points), cement (62 points), technology & communication (49 points), and chemical (46 points). The most points taken off the index were by HBL (44 points), LUCK (35 points), OGDC (28 points), UBL (26 points), and THALL (25 points). The sector taking the index towards north was vanaspati & allied industries (one point). The most points added to the index were by MARI (13 points), SCBPL (6 points), NBP (3 points), and ABOT and ATRL (2 points each).