KARACHI - Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed almost flattish on weekend on investors’ concerns for foreign outflows and economic uncertainty. The benchmark KSE 100-index lost 18 points and closed at 40,248 points.

Range-bound session was witnessed at the local bourse as the KSE 100-index traded between an intra-day high of 102 points and an intra-day low of 183 points. Most of the selling pressure was witnessed during the first half of the day due to the last day of the roll over week, which pulled the market down, said dealer at JS Global.

Mixed sentiment was observed in the banking sector on anticipation of unchanged policy rate in the upcoming announcement of monetary policy. Key stocks such as UBL (down 1.81%), NBP (0.80%) and HBL (0.47%) closed in red while BAFL (up 0.25%) and FABL (0.43%) closed in the green zone.

SECP assurances on workable solution for PSX taxes, Margin Trading Securities and trading activity, upbeat data on oil production, oil sales, auto and cement sales for Jul-Oct 17 invited support in selected scrips across the board. Dismal data on current account and trade deficit for Jul-Oct 17 and weak global equities played a catalyst role in lower close, stated Analyst Ahsan Mehanti. Volumes stood at 160 million shares for the day, reporting a DoD increase of 4.4%. While trading value stood at Rs4.5b/$43m.

KEL led the market as 26 million shares of the power stock changed hands on back of the news that NEPRA is to hear reconsideration request filed by Government of Pakistan for multi-year tariff of K-Electric on Dec 5, 2017.