KARACHI: The Pakistan equity market observed a volatile session on Wednesday, as investors opted for profit-taking in the last trading hour, which led the index to close in the red zone.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market opened on a bleak note but value buying was witnessed in the first trading hour. The main board activity remained dull but the market witnessed heft volumes in the 3rd tier stocks.

“Investors opted for profit taking across the board which led the market to close in the red zone,” he added.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 0.52 per cent, or 241.76 points, to close at 46,165.50 points. The KSE-30 shares Index shed 0.28 per cent, or 50.24 points, to close at 17,764.15 points.

The ready market volumes stood at 474.58 million shares compared with the turnover of 493.59 million shares in the last trading session.

The companies which reflected the highest gains included Sanofi-Aventis up Rs59.50 to close at Rs974.95/share, and AL-Ghazi Tractors up Rs29.42 to close at Rs421.75/share.

The companies that reflected the most losses included Nestle Pakistan down Rs110 to close at Rs5,445/share, and Philip Morris Pak down Rs21 to close at Rs650/share.

“Profit-taking continued throughout the day as the benchmark KSE-100 opened in the green zone and touched an intraday high of 46,643 but was unable to sustain that level due to selling pressure. Index draggers today were LUCK, UBL, BAHL, AGP and MLCF,” an analyst at JS Global said.