Despite political uncertainty and worrying economic indicators, the KSE-100 managed to end over the 44,000-point level as some sort of positivity prevailed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) amid low participation.

The KSE-100 increased 0.42% on Wednesday, but volume on the all-share index clocked in at a meagre 108.41 million, down from 115.64 million a day ago.

“The PSX witnessed a ~22 month low volume amid Ramazan factor and political uncertainty,” said Tahir Abbas, Head of Research at Arif Habib Limited (AHL), in a note.

Despite the low volume, the index gained gradually throughout the day before across-the-board profit-taking was witnessed in the last trading hour.

At close, the KSE-100 ended with a gain of 183.02 points, or 0.42%, to finish at 44,111.10.

KSE-100 trades in narrow range amid lack of clarity

On the economic front, the country’s central government’s debt inflated by 17% on a YoY basis to Rs42,761 billion, revealed data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). Out of the total debt, 65% debt was from domestic sources, while the remaining 35% was financed from external sources.

Sectors pushing the benchmark index upwards included fertiliser (68.28 points), technology and communication (34.35 points) and banking (32.31 points).

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 108.41 million from 115.64 million on Tuesday. The value of shares traded also declined to Rs4.27 billion from Rs4.58 billion recorded in the previous session.

Treet Corporation was the volume leader with 13.43 million shares, followed by Telecard Limited with 11.96 million shares, and Engro Polymer with 5.56 million shares.

Shares of 324 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 190 registered an increase, 104 recorded a fall, and 30 remained unchanged.