The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Wednesday closed almost flat, with the benchmark KSE-100 erasing intraday losses near the end of the day to close at 40,733 with a gain of 8.5 points.

The index experienced a bearish session throughout the day except for the last few minutes when the benchmark showed steep upward movement that recouped all the losses.

The market bottomed out at 40,224 before gaining momentum to rebound, hitting a high of 40,872 minutes before the day's close.

Around 138 million shares worth Rs6.2 billion were traded. Of the 366 scrips traded in the day, 147 advanced, 202 declined and 17 remained unchanged.

"Stocks closed sharply higher led by scrips across the board on institutional interest in the earning season rally on robust sales data for Sep'17 in oil and cement sector," said Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation.

He added that the rising exports, foreign inflows, reports of rising local cement prices and subdued political noise played a catalyst role in bullish close at the PSX.

The chemical sector dominated the day's trading with 22.8 shares traded. The engineering and the cement sectors followed by 20mn and 13.5mn shares respectively.

Volumes were led by:Engro Polymer: 21.2m shares traded [+4.82pc];

Azgard Nine: 8.9m sahres traded [-1.49pc];

Aisha Steel Mill: 8.8m shares traded [-0.39pc];

Dost Steels Ltd: 7.6m sahes traded [0.74pc];

K-Electric Ltd: 6.2m shares traded [-0.16pc].