The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed on a flat note on Wednesday with the benchmark KSE-100 index gaining 43.04 points to close at 40,591.87 points.

The benchmark hit the day's high at 40,742 points in the first few minutes of the session but failed to sustain the upward momentum. Subsequently, the KSE-100 index adopted a downward trajectory to touch a day-low of 40,465 points during the intra-day trading.

In total, around 157 million shares worth Rs5.3 billion changed hands during the day.

However, Only 345 scrips were traded in the session, of which, 172 advanced, 155 declined and 18 remained unchanged.

A market report from the JS Global attributed bearish sentiments at the bourse to ongoing political developments in the country. Traded volumes were up by 54 per cent to 157 million shares while traded values were up by 1.5pc to US$50 million, it said.

"KEL (+10pc) was the primary contributor to the total market volume, followed by WTL (+4.83pc) and TRG (+1.50pc). Strong volumes in KEL were witnessed as investor confidence in the company increased on the back of possibility of Shanghai Electric taking over K-Electric soon," said the report.

Power generation and distribution stocks dominated the trading with 80.4 million shares traded. The technology and communication sector and the oil and gas marketing sector followed with 15.9 million and 7.5 million shares respectively.

The market volumes were led by:

K-Electric Ltd: 77.1m shares traded [+10.11pc];

WorldCall Telecom: 8.3m shares traded [+4.83pc];

TRG Pak Ltd: 6.9m shares traded [+1.50pc];

Sui South Gas: 5.4m shares traded [+2.93pc];

Azgard Nine: 4.5m shares traded [-0.27pc].