KARACHI: Pakistan stocks closed lower on institutional profit taking amid foreign selling and concerns and uncertainty over the outcome of the Panama case hearings. The KSE 100 index declined by 209 points or 0.43 percent to close at 48,678. A brief positive open on thin volumes was quickly followed by the wider market taking a nosedive and entering the red zone as across-the-board institutional profit-taking resulted in KSE100 Index testing support near 48,100 level. The benchmark KSE100 index witnessed wild swings in a near 900-point-range, said analysts at Elixir Securities. Market recovered around mid-day and pared losses afterwards with index names across oils, cements, financials and fertilizers seeing value buying at lower lows, helping KSE100 Index to recover and settle just 210 points lower. Late session support witnessed in selected oil and banking stocks on likely record earning announcements. Concerns over weak exports, circular debt issues and regulatory oversight of equity mutual funds to maintain 5 percent cash played a catalyst role in bearish close in the earning season at PSX, said Ahsan Mehanti, senior analyst. Decline was primarily seen in heavy weights such as LUCK and HBL which contributed 139 points to the index fall. Maple Leaf Cement through a PSX notice stated that the company has signed a contract to enhance its grey cement capacity up to 18,000 metric tons which is expected to come online by Feb 2019.This led the stock price to gain by 2.5 percent. While ICI gained 3.8 percent as it announced that the joint venture between ICI, Morinaga and Unibrands has been approved by the board of directors. Overall, volumes increased by 20 percent to 363 million shares, while value rose by 10.9 percent, Rs22.4 billion/$211 million. On Monday 316 million shares worth Rs 20.2 billion/$194 million were traded at the bourse. Sui Southern Gas Company emerged as the top volume leader with 22 million shares traded followed by Faysal Bank, 21 million, Aisha Steel Mill 15 million, K-electric 13 million, Pace Pakistan 13 million, and Bank of Punjab 12 million. On Tuesday shares of 415 companies were actively traded at the bourse of which shares of 130 companies ended in the green, 272 in red, while 13 remained unchanged. Analysts expect that the volatility in the market will continue to prevail with institutional investors guiding market direction. KSE100 Index however may recover lost grounds in the coming days ahead on earnings and payout excitement as corporate earnings season is just around the corner.