KARACHI - Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) predominantly remained range-bound throughout the day as the 100-share index, after making a high of 117 points and a low of 120 points, eventually closed down 38 points at 39,907 points.

Directionless trading kept the investors at bay, with some professional managers waiting for the market to stabilize and others fearing redemption, brokers said.

Key sectors contributing to activity in index included oil & gas sector, fertilizer and commercial banks. Top gainers of the day were OLPL (up 2.85%), NATF (2.79%) and PAKT (2.32%), while KAPCO (down 4.98%) and SNGP (4.72%) were amongst the major losers. In the E&P sector, POL (up 0.86%), PPL (0.89%) and OGDC (0.54%) closed positive.

Moreover, mixed sentiment was seen in the fertilizer sector where EFERT (up 1.56%) and ENGRO (up 0.44%) closed positive and FFBL (down 0.28%) closed negative, said analyst Danish Ladhani at JS Global.

Stocks that contributed to the growth of index included PPL that added 17 points, EFERT 13 points, POL 12 points, OGDC 11 points and PAKT that added 11 points to the index respectively. On the contrary, the stocks that contributed negatively to the index included SNGP that shed 28 points, KAPCO 27 points, UBL 19 points, HBL 14 points and SEARL that took away 10 points from the index respectively.

Market volumes are seen picking during past few sessions, where investor activity was seen at levels past 100m shares/day. Total volumes were observed at 149.6m shares as compared to 147m shares of the previous day (up 1.5% DoD). Average traded value, however, saw a decline of 36% DoD from USD 58.3m to USD 37.3m.

Stocks leading the volumes include WTL, JPGL, KEL, BOP and DFML that totaled 72m shares, reflecting 48% share of the total volumes.