The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 closed slightly higher after witnessing a lacklustre session on Wednesday, as trading at the index remained in narrow range throughout the day.

Since start of the day, the KSE-100 swayed in both directions. At close, the benchmark index settled at 46,365.04, up by 87.38 points or 0.19%.

On Tuesday, the KSE-100 had eked out 116.02 points.

Investors have been on the sidelines amid lack of fresh triggers in the market. The announcement of election week by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) boosted some sentiment, but the momentum couldn’t continue for a longer period.

However, brokerage house Topline Securities has stated that the stock market can potentially come close to the 50,000 level near the general elections, assuming there is a “smooth election process” and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approves the next tranche of the Stand-By Arrangement in November this year.

“We believe that the Pakistan market can potentially experience an 8-10% pre-election rally thereby, has the potential to reach near 50k assuming a smooth election process and the approval of the IMF tranche in November,” said the brokerage house earlier.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee maintained its momentum against the US dollar, gaining 0.36% in the inter-bank market on Wednesday. As per the State Bank of Pakistan, the local unit settled at 288.75 after an increase of Rs1.05 in the inter-bank market.

This was the rupee’s 16th consecutive increase against the greenback.

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 177.5 million from 259 million on Tuesday.

The value of shares marginally increase to Rs6.92 billion from Rs6.68 billion in the previous session.

Maple Leaf remained the volume leader with 11.08 million shares, followed by Pak Petroleum with 9.11 million shares and WorldCall Telecom with 7.09 million shares.

Shares of 325 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 172 registered an increase, 124 recorded a fall, and 29 remained unchanged.