The KSE-100 sustained on Wednesday its level over the 45,000-point mark, closing positive for the first time after four consecutive sessions of ending in the red.

At close, the index settled at 45,095.11, an increase of 85.77 points or 0.19%.

KSE-100 manages to close over 45,000, ends marginally lower

Index-heavy cement and automobile assemblers traded in the negative, while commercial banks and the oil/gas sectors helped the KSE-100 close higher.

“There were a lot of jitters following the IMF country report regarding interest rates and the consensus view was for lower prices,” said brokerage house Arif Habib Limited in a post-market comment.

“Top Performers today were banks and standouts were BAHL PA (+6.31%), MCB PA (+5.49%), BAFL PA (+3.48%), and UBL PA (+5.77%) which beat payout expectations with a Rs11/share dividend.”

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 245.45 million from 254.96 million on Tuesday. The value of shares traded increased to Rs9.4 billion from Rs7.32 billion in the previous session.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 18.5 million shares followed by TPL Properties with 10.3 million shares and Pak Petroleum with 8.96 million shares.

Shares of 325 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 97 registered an increase, 202 recorded a fall and 26 remained unchanged.