The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday closed almost flattish, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding 54 points to close at 43,573 points.

The index had showed some positive activity during the first half of the session, but selling pressure reversed all gains in the second half. The index hit a day's high of 43,945 points during the first few hours. It hit a day's low of 43,512 points near the end of the session.

In all, only 126.7 million shares worth Rs5.1 billion changed hands during the session. Of the 359 traded scrips, 140 advanced, 193 declined and 26 remained unchanged.

After a promising start, the index had showed some volatility due to selling pressure, an Elixir Securities' report said. "The market easily lost ground after selling pressure exacerbated on account of sizable position in future contracts of Rs10.9bn requiring settlement by the end of this week," the report read.

"Investors did not pay heed to the $0.60 rise in WTI oil prices, which have touched $62 per barrel. Resultantly, the market closed lower," it added.

According to the report, investors were also cautious ahead of the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) key meeting in Paris as the US and a few European countries plan to table a motion to put Pakistan back on a watch-list that will impact its key banks.

Resultantly, traded volumes were down 15 per cent on a day-to-day basis, while values were down 12pc.

Overall, food and personal care products scrips dominated trading with 19.3m shares traded, while the cement and communication sectors followed with 14.9m and 12.2m shares changing hands.

Volumes were led by:

• Fauji Foods Ltd: 9.8m shares traded [+4.97pc];

• TRG Pak Ltd: 7.5m shares traded [-2.94pc];

• Matco Foods Ltd: 6.8m shares traded [+3.19pc];

• Dewan Salman: 6.6m shares traded [+3.53pc];

  • Dewan Cement: 5.9m shares traded [-2.85pc].