The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained highly volatile on Wednesday, with the KSE-100 index ending the session almost unchanged as investors stayed cautious due to a lack of positive cues.

The benchmark index moved within a narrow range, hitting an intra-day high of 189,183.88 and a low of 188,179.51. By the close, the index recorded a thin gain of 177.53 points, or 0.09% and stayed flat at 188,380.39 points.

KTrade Securities noted trading remained largely range-bound as investors adopted a cautious stance, resulting in selective participation across the market.

Activity stayed subdued, with volumes concentrated in a few stocks. Overall market participation remained muted. Despite the absence of any fresh escalation on the Middle East front, investors largely stayed on the sidelines.

Profit-taking in cyclical stocks continued following the State Bank of Pakistan’s decision to keep the policy rate unchanged, limiting upside momentum.

Sector-wise, oil & gas, commercial banks, and cement sectors closed in positive territory, whereas fertiliser and technology stocks remained largely inactive.

Going forward, “we expect range-bound activity to persist until the rollover week concludes. The ongoing and upcoming corporate result season is likely to remain the key catalyst for near-term market direction,” KTrade mentioned.

Overall trading volume increased to 953.9 million shares versus Tuesday’s tally of 749.2m, while shares worth Rs48.8 billion were traded. Shares of 485 companies were traded. Of these, 182 rose, 253, dropped and 50 remained unchanged. K-Electric was the volume leader with trading in 196.7m shares, gaining Rs0.26 to close at Rs7.30.