KARACHI: The Pakistan Stocks Exchanged (PSX) Monday remained under pressure but gained 185.77 points to take the tally to 44523.21 points level.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 44630.07 points and lowest level of 43975.12 points, with the volume of about 75.28 million shares and value of Rs4.18 billion. As many as 356 companies were active; of which 174 advanced, 165 declined and 17 remained unchanged.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 5.68 million shares, adding Rs0.02 to reach Rs6.61. It was followed by Engro Polymer with 4.58 million shares, gaining Rs0.44 to end at Rs33.97 and Dewan Motor with 4.28 million shares, adding Rs1.75 to close at Rs37.86.
The top three gainers were Rafhan Maize with price per share of 6982.50 (332.50), Unilever Foods with price per share of 5800 (199.94) and Khyber Tobacco of 774.24 (36.86).
The top three losers were Philip Morris Pak with price per share of 2519.15 (-113.55), Colgate Palmolive with price per share of 2355 (-45) and Jubile Life Ins share of 800.77 (-33.68).
Earlier, the stocks opened on negative note as the benchmark 100-index 353 points to drop to 43984 points level in early trading. The PSX recouped till midday with 150 points to reach 44487 points level.
On Friday, the stocks remained lacklustre as the index traded between an intraday high of 683 points and low of 88 points to close at 44,337 level by rallying 554 points or (1.27 percent).
Substantial recovery was witnessed during the last hour of the session, as value-seeking investors started accumulating MSCI stocks, which led the market to enter into the green zone, brokers said. Commercial banking sector contributed 156 points to the index as heavyweights including, MCB (+0.90pc), NBP (+1.72pc) and HBL (+1.28pc) closed in the green zone. PSMC (-1.02pc), HCAR (-1.04pc) and INDU (-1.56pc) from the auto sector shed points on account of the negative impact from the revision of Customs values of replacement auto parts. OGDC (+0.70pc), POL (+1.51pc) and PPL (+1.59pc) were gainers from the E&P sector. Scrips of total 340 active companies participated in the session of which 240 closed in green, 83 in red, while 17 remained unchanged.