The Pakistan Stock Exchange commenced the week with a session that saw a sharp upswing followed by sustained selling pressure, leading to the benchmark KSE-100 Index closing with a modest 98 point, or 0.21 per sent, gain at 46,010.

The index climbed 777 points within the first 15 minutes of the session on Monday on the back of a perceived return to political stability in the country. The rally continued as the index breached the 47,000 level during intra-day trading.

The index added a total of 1,200 points to touch a day's high of 47,112 points, but shed most of the gains over the day to close at 46,010 points. However, the day's opening at 45,912 points remained the day's low.

Textile composite dominated the day's trading with 40.8m shares traded, while the banking and the engineering sectors followed with 35.5m and 29.1m shares traded respectively.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said late session pressure was witnessed in banking stocks on reports of narrowing banking spreads.

"Record rise in global crude prices and upbeat financial results in the energy and auto sectors played a catalyst role in bullish close," he said.

Almost 150 million shares of KSE-100 scrips, worth Rs14.8 billion, were traded during the session.

Shares of 386 companies changed hands during the day, with 255 symbols advancing, 114 declining and 17 remaining unchanged.

Volumes were led by:

Azgard Nine: 33.14m shares traded [-3.14pc];

K-Electric Ltd: 19.77m shares traded [-0.46pc];

Sui South Gas: 18.23m shares traded [-3.24pc];

TRG Pak Ltd: 9.9m shares traded [+1.09pc];

Aisha Steel Mill: 9.8m shares traded [+2.30pc].