KARACHI:  Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed mixed trading on Wednesday, as benchmark KSE-100 Index swayed in both directions before closing day marginally higher by 162 points. KSE-100 started day with negative momentum, hitting an intra-day low of 81,529.45.

However, bulls soon took driving seat and pushed index to an intra-day high of 82,360.29, followed by some late-session selling that trimmed earlier gains. At close, benchmark index settled at 81,967.01, up by 162.41 points or 0.20 percent Index was primarily driven by UBL, FFC, MCB, ENGRO and PKGP, which together contributed 270 points, it added.

Volume on all-share index increased to 360.99 million from 359.08 million on Tuesday. However, value of shares declined to Rs 15.39 billion from Rs 17.16 billion in previous session. Agha Steel Industries was volume leader with 30.83 million shares, followed by WorldCall Telecom with 26.47 million shares and Fauji Cement with 20.04 million shares. Shares of 448 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 164 registered an increase, 221 recorded fall while 63 remained unchanged. Globally, Asia stocks sank on Wednesday, catching up with sell-off on Wall Street after Iran’s ballistic missile strike on Israel provoked fears of wider regional conflict, while crude oil pushed higher on risk of supply disruptions. Japan’s Nikkei slumped 1.5 percent, while South Korea’s KOSPI dropped 1.3 percent and Australia’s benchmark lost 0.3 percent.