The benchmark KSE-100 finished with trimmed gains on Thursday after a range-bound trading session with volume and value improving on a daily basis.

At close, the index settled with a gain of 91.94 points or 0.21% at 44,266.91 after touching an intra-day high of 44,448.

“Another range-bound witnessed at Pakistan equities where market opened in a green zone due to positive news flow with regards to Pakistan, USA relationship where Washington praised Pakistan's efforts of conducting OIC summit to help Afghanistan in the ongoing humanitarian crisis,” stated Topline Securities in its post-market comment.

“Moreover, the PIB auction, where yields on different tenure mostly remained flat amidst the heavy participation, also assisted market to consolidate at current level,” it added.

KSE-100 ends flat amid low volume

On the economic front, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday that the sixth review of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) would be presented to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) board on January 12.

Sixth review to be presented to IMF board on Jan 12: Pakistan's finance ministry

Meanwhile, sectors pulling the benchmark KSE-100 index higher included technology and communication (76.86 points), banking (12.60 points) and cement (12.09 points).

Volume increased, clocking in at 240.43 million on the all-shares index, up from 151.79 million on Wednesday. The value of shares traded jumped to Rs8.02 billion, up from Rs6.6 billion.

Hum Network Limited was the volume leader with 48.72 million shares, followed by TRG Pakistan Limited with 19.93 million shares, and Unity Foods Limited with 17.71 million shares.

Shares of 357 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 199 registered an increase, 135 recorded a fall, and 23 remained unchanged.