The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Wednesday closed on a flattish note, with the benchmark KSE-100 index shedding 76 points to finish at 42,546.

The index opened higher to hit a day's high of 42,774 points but could not maintain the positive momentum and adopted a downwards trend for the rest of the session. The benchmark index hit a day's low of 42,337 points before recovering ground.

In all, 133.7 million shares worth Rs5.3 billion were traded at the exchange. Of the 402 scrips traded in the day, 155 advanced, 222 declined and 25 remained unchanged.

"Despite dull activity, market appeared to consolidate as prices have fallen down to extremely attractive levels," read a JS Global report.

A Topline Securities' report read, "Tracking events in the global financial market, Pakistan stocks replicated similar performance today and closed red after posting return of 1.15 per cent yesterday."

"Asian stocks fell today as Italy’s political crises rippled across financial markets, where Nikkei and Hang Seng lost around 1.5pc and 1.4pc respectively," it added.

The banking sector dominated trading with 31.7m shares traded, while the chemical and communication sectors followed with 12.3m and 11.9m shares traded respectively.

Volumes were led by:Bank Of Punjab: 11.2m shares traded [+1.26pc];

Faysal Bank Limited: 9.5m shares traded [+0.85pc];

Pakistan Elektron Ltd: 9.5m shares traded [+1.09pc];

TRG Pakistan Ltd: 8.7m shares traded [+4.49pc];

Pakistan Intl. Bulk Terminal Ltd: 5.7m shares traded [-6.87pc].