The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed the week on a negative note as the benchmark KSE-100 index shed 345 points, or 0.76 per cent, to close at 45,288.

The market adopted a bearish trend from the start of the session and its opening at 45,634 points remained the day's high. The benchmark touched the day's low at 45,261 points near the close of the session.

The textile sector dominated the day's trading with 21.9 million shares traded, while the communication and the oil and gas marketing sectors followed with 11m and 10.7m shares traded, respectively.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said in his analysis that stocks had closed lower amid thin trading volumes and pressure in global equities on geopolitical risks.

"Institutional support was witnessed in banking stocks on strong financial results in the banking sector. Concerns over $3.2bn dismal trade deficit figure, rising imports, falling foreign exchange reserves and outstanding circular debt in the energy sector played a catalyst role in the bearish close," he said.

A JS Global report stated that the overall political uncertainty combined with an uninspiring corporate results season had contributed to another splash of red on trading screens at the end of the week.

"POL (-1.98pc), PSO (-2.16pc) and LUCK (-1.19pc) were the heaviest in dragging down the KSE-100 index, cumulatively [taking it down] by 67 points," said the report.

Out of commercial bank heavyweights, HBL (-1.41pc), UBL (-0.85pc) and MCB (-0.76pc) lost value and cumulatively reduced 76 points from the KSE-100 index, the report read, adding that OGDC (-1.20pc), POL (-1.98pc) and PPL (-1.80pc) lost points as the United States crude futures for September delivery were down 0.76pc to $48.20 a barrel, the lowest since July 26.

"Almost all major sectors, such as E&Ps (-3.5pc week-on-week), banks (-3.0pc week-on-week), fertilizers (-4.6pc week-on-week) and cement (-3.9pc week-on-week) posted declines during the week," it added.

Only 42.5 million shares of KSE-100 chips, worth Rs4.35 billion, were traded in the day. Shares of a total of 351 companies were traded at the PSX, of which 134 gained in value, 199 declined and 18 remained unchanged.

Volumes were led by:

Azgard Nine: 18.57m shares traded (+5.20pc);

TRG Pak Ltd: 6.2m shares traded (+1.89pc);

Aisha Steel Mill: 5.37m shares traded (+1.29pc);

Sui South Gas: 5.04m shares traded (+2.55pc);

Dewan Motors: 4.52m shares traded (-1.67pc).