Before you press "Buy" in your broker's app, it helps to know the rules of the road. How many shares can you buy? What price will you actually get? When do the shares arrive? What happens if the market crashes? This lesson answers those questions for the Pakistan Stock Exchange.
Market orders and limit orders
When you place an order, you choose how you want it to be priced.
Market order
A market order says: "Buy (or sell) this many shares now, at the best price available." It fills almost instantly in busy stocks.
- Good for: speed, in very liquid shares like OGDC, PPL, FFC or UBL where the gap between buyers and sellers is tiny.
- Risk: you do not control the price. In a thinly traded stock, or in a fast-moving market, you may pay more (or receive less) than the price you saw a second ago.
Limit order
A limit order says: "Buy at Rs 300 or lower" or "Sell at Rs 320 or higher." It only fills at your price or better.
- Good for: controlling what you pay, and for less-traded stocks.
- Risk: it may not fill at all if the price never reaches your limit.
For beginners, limit orders are usually the safer default. If you want to buy MEBL and it is trading around Rs 555, you can place a limit buy at Rs 555. You will not accidentally pay Rs 570 in a sudden spike.
Other options you may see
Broker apps may offer extra settings such as:
- Stop-loss orders, which become sell orders if the price falls to a level you set.
- Order validity, such as "day" (cancelled at the end of the session if not filled) or longer.
Features and names differ between brokers' apps. Ask your broker exactly how each option works before using it.
Lots: how many shares you can buy
In the past, PSX shares traded in fixed "market lots" of 20, 50, 100 or 500 shares, depending on price. Smaller quantities had to go through a separate "odd-lot" market, which had few buyers and sellers.
That changed in 2024. From April 2024, PSX moved regular-market shares to a one-share lot. You can now buy or sell as little as 1 share of most companies in the normal market.
This is great news for beginners. Even with Rs 5,000 you can buy a few shares of a large company. For example, at the 30 September 2026 close, one FFC share cost Rs 541.02, so Rs 5,000 would buy 9 shares (before broker charges).
The odd-lot market still exists
Some products did not move to one-share lots. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) still trade in lots of 500 shares in the regular market, with smaller amounts going through the odd-lot market. IPOs also use 500-share lots. If you see an "ODL" tab on a quote, that is the odd-lot market.
Circuit breakers on single stocks
To prevent wild swings, each stock has a daily price band called a circuit breaker. On the PSX it is currently:
10% above or below the previous day's close (LDCP), or Rs 1, whichever is greater.
PSX widened this from 7.5% to 10% in steps during May to July 2024.
Example from 1 October 2026: OGDC's LDCP was Rs 316.73, so its band for the day was Rs 285.06 to Rs 348.40. No trade could happen outside that range.
The "Rs 1" part protects very cheap shares. For a Rs 5 stock, 10% is only 50 paisa, so the band becomes Rs 1 instead: Rs 4 to Rs 6.
When a stock hits its upper limit with only buyers left, it is "locked" at the upper circuit. You may not be able to buy at all. At the lower circuit you may not be able to sell. This is a real risk in small, speculative stocks.
Market-wide halts
There is also a circuit breaker for the whole market. If the KSE-30 index moves 5% up or down from the previous close and stays there for five minutes, trading in the whole market is halted temporarily. Outstanding orders are cancelled, and trading resumes after a set break with a short pre-open period.
This happened on 2 March 2026. After the US-Israel strikes on Iran, the KSE-30 fell 5% shortly after the open, trading was halted at 9:22 am and restarted at 10:30 am. The KSE-100 still closed down 16,089 points (9.57%) at 151,973, its largest one-day fall in points.
A halt gives people time to calm down. It does not stop the fall. Do not assume a halt means the bottom is in.
Trading hours
PSX regular market hours (outside Ramadan and holidays):
| Day | Pre-open | Order matching | Normal trading | Post-close |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday to Thursday | 9:15 to 9:30 am | 9:30 to 9:32 am | 9:32 am to 3:30 pm | 3:35 to 3:50 pm |
| Friday, session 1 | 9:00 to 9:15 am | 9:15 to 9:17 am | 9:17 am to 12:00 pm | none |
| Friday, session 2 | 2:15 to 2:30 pm | 2:30 to 2:32 pm | 2:32 to 4:30 pm | 4:35 to 4:50 pm |
Timings change in Ramadan and can be revised. Check the PSX trading hours page or your broker for the current schedule.
What is the pre-open session?
During pre-open you can enter orders, but nothing trades yet. At the end, the system matches buy and sell orders to find a single opening price, then normal trading begins. Orders entered in pre-open cannot be cancelled or changed until the matching break ends.
For beginners, it is usually wiser to avoid placing large market orders in pre-open. Opening prices can jump on overnight news.
Post-close session
After the market closes, there is a short session where trades happen at the closing price. It is mainly used by people who missed the close.
Settlement: T+1
When your order fills, the trade is done, but the actual exchange of money and shares happens later. This is called settlement.
Since 9 February 2026, the PSX settles regular-market trades on T+1: one business day after the trade date (T). Before that it was T+2.
What this means in practice:
- Monday: you buy 50 UBL shares.
- Tuesday: the shares are credited to your CDC sub-account and the money is taken from your broker account.
If you sell, the money is available in your broker account one business day after the sale. Withdrawing it to your bank can take a little longer depending on your broker.
T+1 also matters for dividends. To get a dividend you must buy before the ex-date, which is set so that your trade settles before the company's book closure. Lesson 6 explains.
Costs of a trade
Every trade has small costs on top of the share price:
- Broker commission, which differs by broker and account type
- Exchange, clearing and CDC fees
- Taxes such as sales tax on the commission and capital value tax (CVT)
Your broker's contract note (the trade confirmation) lists each charge. Compare commissions on our brokers page, and check the full fee schedule with your broker before you trade.
Key points
- Limit orders let you control your price and are the safer default for beginners. Market orders give speed but no price control.
- Since 2024, most shares trade in one-share lots. ETFs and IPOs still use 500-share lots.
- Each stock can move at most 10% (or Rs 1) from LDCP in a day. A 5% move in the KSE-30 halts the whole market.
- Normal trading runs 9:32 am to 3:30 pm Monday to Thursday, with two sessions on Friday, plus pre-open and post-close sessions.
- PSX moved to T+1 settlement on 9 February 2026.
Next lesson: Dividends, bonus shares and rights issues. New to trading? Start with get started.