KARACHI: Bears dominated Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Wednesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 index losing 389 points, or 0.93 per cent, to close at 41,390 points level.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 42054.07 points and lowest level of 41324.61 points, with the volume of over 147.81 million shares and value of Rs8.61 billion. As many as 358 companies were active; of which 94 advanced, 245 declined and 19 remained unchanged.
TRG Pak Ltd was the volume leader with 16.03 million shares, adding Rs0.10 to reach Rs37.24. It was followed by JS Bank with 12.53 million shares, dropping Rs0.20 to end at Rs8.15 and Aisha Steel Mill with 8.26 million shares, shedding Rs0.49 to close at Rs19.49.
The top three gainers were Unilever Foods with price per share of 6520 (120), Sanofi-Aventis with price per share of 1722.50 (77.14) and Millat Tractors of 1280.17 (57.42).
The top three losers were Khyber Tobacco with price per share of 794.21 (-41.79), Wyeth Pak Ltd with price per share of 2150 (-35) and ICI Pakistan share of 900 (-26.09).
Earlier, the stocks opened on positive note and crossed 42,000 level after adding 237 points to reach 42016 points level in early trading. The PSX shed the early gains and dropped 143 points to reach 41636 points level till midday.
On Tuesday, the stocks staged strong recovery on first trading day after Eidul Azha holidays, with benchmark KSE-100 index gaining 572 points and closing at 41779.20 points.
New additions to FTSE Asia Pacific ex Japan index garnered significant interest; namely MTL (up 5%), SNGPL (4.9%), THALL (3.8%), BAFL (up 3.2%) & MCB (up 1.4%) closing deep in the green despite the underlying risks.
Index movers OGDC (up 4.7%), UBL (2.7%), SNGP (4.8%), BAHL (4.8%) & DAWH (up 3.5%), added 245 points; while HBL (down 5%), DCR (5.6%), PIOC (2.3%), COLG (1.7%) & HMB (1.2%) held back 150 points. E&P’s added 122 points. Traded volume improved to 107m shares compared to 70m shares of previous session while traded value also increased to Rs6.5b.