KARACHI: Opened on positive note, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained under pressure all the day but managed to close positive as the benchmark KSE-100 index gained 43 points to reach 40591.87.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 40741.91 points and lowest level of 40465.52 points, with the volume of 157 million shares and value of Rs5.29 billion. As many as 345 companies were active; of which 172 advanced, 155 declined and 18 remained unchanged.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 77.15 million shares, adding Rs0.54 to reach Rs5.88. It was followed by WorldCall Telecom with 8.31 million shares, gaining Rs0.14 to end at Rs3.04 and TRG Pak Ltd with 6.90 million shares, adding Rs0.54 to close at Rs36.43.
The top three gainers were Unilever Foods with price per share of 6900 (100), Pak Tobacco with price per share of 1594.62 (75.93) and Hinopak Motor of 1098.88 (52.32).
The top three losers were Sapphire Fiber with price per share of 793.25 (-41.75), Honda Atlas Car with price per share of 559.54 (-22.63) and Mithchells Fruit share of 272.67 (-13.33).
The stocks opened keeping previous day’s bullish note and gained 185 points to reach 40734 level in early trading. The PSX shed all the early gains and became bearish after shedding 25 points till midday to drop to 40524 level.
On Tuesday, the stocks witnessed promising start of the day where KSE-100 index surged above 40,500, managing to close near session highs; up by 232 points or (0.6pc) to close 40,549 points level.
E&P sector closed in the green today as compared to the last trading day, where POL (up 0.55pc), PPL (gain 1.04pc) and OGDC (rose 1.69pc) were the major movers in the sector amidst international crude oil prices, stated dealer at JS Global. Top index point performers were MCB (up 2.3pc), OGDC (up 1.7pc), PPL (gain 1.1pc), PAKT (up 5pc) & SNGP (up 2.6pc) contributing 126 points to the index while PSO (down 1.6pc), KAPCO (dip 0.5pc), NCPL (slip 5pc), NPL (down 5pc) & DAWH (slump 0.8pc) withheld 40 points from the index.
On the sector front, banks added 78 points, while E&Ps contributed 64 points and fertiliser 26 points while on the flip side power held back 19 points as investors were concerned over news of shutdown of furnace oil based power plants.