KARCHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange's benchmark KSE-100 Index closed flat on Thursday after witnessing range-bound trading amid lack of fresh triggers.

Trading activity remained range-bound with index swaying in both directions throughout session. It hit an intra-day high of 79,154.30 against an intra-day low of 78,578.02.At close, benchmark index settled at 78,863.34, marginally up by 15.33 points or 0.02 percent. Sectors that contributed positively included banking, fertiliser, cement, and technology, while E&Ps, power, OMCs, auto and pharma sectors closed in red.  Volume on all-share index decreased to 770.52 million from 969.77 million on Wednesday. Value of shares declined to Rs 14.29 billion from Rs 17.51 billion in previous session.

WorldCall Telecom was volume leader with 87.10 million shares, followed by Pace (Pak) Ltd with 66.58 million shares and Kohinoor Spinning with 42.18 million shares. Shares of 444 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 148 registered an increase, 252 recorded fall while 44 remained unchanged. Globally, Asian share markets tried to regain their footing on Thursday after steep sell-off, while rally in Treasuries dented dollar and lifted yen as US economic worries raised odds of Federal Reserve going big on rate cuts. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.5 percent to its lowest in three weeks, although tech-heavy Taiwan and South Korean stocks were both 1 percent higher after sliding on Wednesday.