Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday ended with thin gains as investors resorted to profit-taking at attractive levels following a spike in the KSE-100 index earlier in the day.

The absence of encouraging developments kept investors cautious, leading to limited activity in major stocks while smaller companies attracted the interest of market players.

The index opened on a positive note in the morning, reaching its intra-day peak of 79,254.25 points before midday. Major support came from cement, banking and petroleum sectors.

However, as the session progressed, the investors started offloading their positions, which pushed the market to its intra-day low of 78,917.29 just before the end of trading.

A significant development was the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI)-based inflation rate, which fell by 0.15% week-on-week, marking its fourth consecutive week of decline.

Additionally, the Pakistani rupee marginally appreciated to Rs278.57 to a dollar in the inter-bank market.

“Stocks closed higher, led by second and third-tier shares, amid speculation about the SBP policy rate announcement on September 12,” said Ahsan Mehanti, MD of Arif Habib Corp.

“The Supreme Court’s ruling in favour of the government in the NAB amendment case and a 14% year-on-year increase in exports for August were also the catalysts for positive close at the PSX.”

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index posted a slight increase of 34.38 points, or 0.04%, and settled at 78,897.73.

Topline Securities, in its review, said that a range-bound session was observed as the index traded between the intra-day high of 391 points and intra-day low of -54 points. It finally settled at 78,898, up 0.04%.

Major positive contribution came from Kohat Cement, Mari Petroleum, Bank Alfalah, National Bank of Pakistan and MCB Bank, which cumulatively added 42 points to the index.

On the other hand, Meezan Bank, Engro Corp, Fauji Fertiliser, Habib Metropolitan Bank and National Foods lost value, pulling the index down by 30 points, Topline added.

Arif Habib Limited (AHL), in its report, wrote that the KSE-100 gained 0.45% week-on-week but remained below the 79,000 mark.

On Friday, 44 stocks rose and 52 fell with Kohat Cement (+10%), Mari Petroleum (+1.31%) and Bank Alfalah (+2.11%) contributing the most to the index gains, it said.

The upcoming FTSE rebalancing on September 20 is now in focus, with Pakistan moving from the secondary emerging market to the frontier market status, which may influence sell-side flows, AHL added.

JS Global analyst Mubashir Anis Naviwala observed that the bourse witnessed a range-bound activity where the KSE-100 closed at 78,898, up 34 points.

The lack of positive triggers kept investors cautious, resulting in limited participation in mainboard shares, and volumes were largely driven by small-cap stocks.

“Going forward, we expect the range-bound activity to continue and recommend investors to take advantage of any downside as a buying opportunity in cement and textile sectors,” the analyst added.

Overall trading volumes decreased to 743.1 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 770.5 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs12.9 billion.

Shares of 444 companies were traded. Of these, 185 stocks closed higher, 201 dropped and 58 remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with trading in 133.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.08 to close at Rs1.42. It was followed by Pace Pakistan with 80.99 million shares, gaining Rs0.48 to close at Rs6.14 and Fauji Foods with 46.7 million shares, gaining Rs0.49 to close at Rs9.52.

During the trading session, foreign investors sold shares worth Rs1.13 billion, according to the NCCPL.