KARACHI: Pakistan equities on Friday closed the last day of the fiscal year 2017 lower after the benchmark KSE-100 Index traded volatile in a narrow range and settled 0.3 percent or 146.56 points down over 46,500 points level. Activity today was higher as turnover increased by 25 percent against the previous day. Index names saw somewhat improved activity on reported rebalancing by foreign institutional investors while select sideboards also saw a surge in volumes on possible end of fiscal year window dressing. Volumes rose by 25 percent to 235 million shares against 187 million shares traded on previous day, while traded value went down by 25 percent to Rs 9.3 billion as against 12.59 billion of previous session. On the leader board, major positive contribution came from index heavy Habib Bank Limited (HBL) gaining 1.2 percent on reported foreign buying while major dent came from Hub Power Company (Hubco) loosing 3.5 percent after its sponsor Dawood Herculues (DAWH0 (down 2.8 percent ) notified exchange that it is contemplating a potential sale of its entire shareholding in the company. Despite the recent correction, KSE-100 index was up by 23.2 percent in US Dollar terms during Fiscal year 2016-17 (FY17), outperforming MSCI EM index with 21.6 percent and MSCI FM index 15 percent. “Market is expected to trade dull next week with investors likely trading selectively and monitoring developments on domestic politics as key members of Premier’s family are lined up to appear before investigative panel probing graft charge”, said an analyst at Elixir Research. Meanwhile, Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) has become the first self-listed stock exchange in South Asia. In order to celebrate self listing and share sales, PSX organized a get-together at the stock exchange building on Friday. Governor Sindh Muhammad Zubair was the chief guest on the occasion PSX share sales and self listing process completed in 2 phases. A total of 60 percent shares were sold, out of which 40 percent shares were sold to strategic investors while 20 percent shares were sold to 150 investors via book building process. The share price remained same in both phases at Rs 28 per share. Total worth of the transaction stood at Rs 13.448 billion. Remaining 40 percent shares of exchange remain with 200 owner brokers of PSX. Published in Daily Times, July 1st , 2017.