Profit-taking saps stock market's early gains.

KARACHI -- The benchmark index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange closed lower on Thursday even though the market opened on a positive note over a decline in international oil prices and the anticipation of $1.3 billion flood-related support from the World Bank.

Topline Securities said the initial positivity didn't sustain as profit-taking made its way in the second half.

The rupee's depreciation and a delay in the review of the International Monetary Fund loan programme also hurt investors' confidence and led the benchmark to close in the red, noted Arif Habib Ltd.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 42,819.72 points, down 164 points or 0.38 per cent from the preceding session.

The trading volume decreased 2.9pc to 181.2 million shares while the traded value went down 7.7pc to $27.7m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included BankIslami Pakistan Ltd (17.1m shares), Unity Foods Ltd (11.6m shares), Telecard Ltd (11.5m shares), Ghani Chemical Ltd (11m shares) and WorldCall Telecom Ltd (10.6m shares).

Sectors that contributed to the index performance were technology and...