The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed lower on Wednesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing 376 points, or 0.88 per cent, to close at 42,290.

Volumes on the exchange remained low, with only 146.8 million stocks worth Rs5.4 billion traded. Only 99 of the 364 symbols traded advanced while 241 declined and 24 remained unchanged.

"Market opened and traded in red territory from the word go as noise on political front due to appearance of country's finance minister before accountability court on corruption charges," an analyst's note from Elixir Securities said.

"Stocks closed bearish on investor concerns for an ADB development report warning over dismal economic outlook, external shocks and likely $14.5bn current account deficit," Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation noted.

The technology sector dominated trading with 26.1m shares traded, while commercial banks and textile spinning followed with 21.6m and 19.3m shares traded respectively.

Volumes were led by:

K-Electric Ltd: 13.7m shares traded [-2.03pc]

WorldCall Telecom: 13.1m shares traded [+2.91pc]

B.O.Punjab: 11.8m shares traded [-0.22pc]

TRG Pak Ltd: 10.9m shares traded [-4.76pc]

Kohinoor Spinning: 7.8m shares traded [+17.27pc]