KARACHI: The Pakistan Stocks witnessed a range bound session on Thursday due to the political unrest, thin trade on concerns for rupee instability and surging government bond yields.

The market opened in the green zone but stayed volatile throughout the day while the main board activity remained dull, an analyst at Arif Habib Limited said.

“The activity in the market continued to remain side-ways as it witnessed hefty volumes in the third tier stocks. In the last trading hour, profit taking was witnessed which led the index to close in the red zone,” he added.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 0.38 per cent, or 168.46 points, to close at 43,807.23 points. The KSE-30 shares Index shed 1.13 per cent, or 193.09 points, to close at 16,825.47 points.

As many as 335 scrips were active of which 110 advanced, 202 declined and 23 remained unchanged.

The ready market volumes stood at 148.50 million shares, compared with the turnover of 236.50 million shares in the last trading session.

The companies which reflected the highest gains included Rafhan Maize up Rs300 to close at Rs11,700/share, and Nestle Pakistan up Rs131.25 to close at Rs5,600/share.

The companies that reflected the most losses included Unilever Foods down Rs299 to close at Rs21,500/share, and Sapphire Tex down Rs65.85 to close at Rs999.22/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in Flying Cement(R) with a turnover of 36.23 million shares. The scrip shed 8 paisas to close at Rs0.01/share, followed by WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 14.57 million shares. It shed 8 paisas to close at Rs1.57/share. TPL Properties (XB) remained the third with a turnover of 7.61 million shares. It gained 41 paisas to finish at Rs18.56/share.