Pakistan stocks witnessed a range-bound session on Wednesday, as the benchmark index remained flat, while volumes improved remarkably from the last session on the back of trading in small-caps.

The benchmark index moved in the band of 200 points, hitting an intra-day high of 45,438.04 and a low of 45,241.33.

At close on Wednesday, the index finished with an increase of 17.05 points or 0.04% to end at 45,407.89.

“The day started in the backdrop of rising Omricon cases (new variant) in the country,” said Topline Securities in a post-market comment.

Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar in a presser warned that the Omicron variant will spread rapidly in Pakistan, saying that 60% of cases of Omicron in the country have been reported from Karachi and Lahore.

On the economic front, the trade deficit was reported at $4.9 billion during December.

On the corporate front, Supernet Limited, a subsidiary of Telecard Limited, announced that it has won a major, optical fibre supply and deployment project from a Pakistani mobile network operator.

Sectors that rescued the benchmark index from the negative zone included oil and gas marketing (22.29 points), power generation and distribution (21.53 points), and investment banking (18.23 points).

Volume increased, clocking in at 432.06 million on the all-share index, up from 375.99 million on Monday. However, the value of shares traded decreased to Rs10.29 billion, down from Rs12.78 billion.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 75.59 million shares, followed by Unity Foods Limited (R3) with 66.81 million shares, and Telecard Limited with 23.80 million shares.

Shares of 363 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 174 registered an increase, 167 recorded a fall, and 22 remained unchanged.