KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) Wednesday closed negative as the benchmark KSE-100 index plunged 2980.99 points to close at 40662.79.
A total of 90.3 million shares worth Rs6.79 billion were traded on the exchange. Of the 350 traded scrips, 140 advanced, 188 declined and 22 remained unchanged.
Engro Corp was the volume leader with 8.97 million shares, shedding Rs7.40 to reach Rs265.77. It was followed by Azgard Nine with 7 million shares, losing Rs0.24 to end at Rs14.82 and Unity Foods(R) with 3.86 million shares, dropping Rs0.13 to close at Rs4.80.
The top three gainers were Colgate Palmolive with price per share of 2321 (108.99), Bata (Pak) with price per share of 2590 (90) and Pak Tobacco of 1260 (60).
The top three losers were Sapphire Tex with price per share of 1804.96 (-94.99), Sanofi-Aventis with price per share of 1590 (-40) and Service Ind. Ltd share of 783.15 (-33.84).
The stocks opened negative shedding 82 points to reach 40862 points level in early trading. The PSX continued to shed points till midday as the benchmark 100-index dropped 51 points to reach 40892 points level.
On Tuesday, another dull session was witnessed at the PSX as the benchmark KSE-100 index, after trading between an intra-day high of 77 points and intra-day low of 340 points, closed 296 points down at 40,944 points.
Trading at the bourse was underpinned by MSCI’s overnight announcement where the leading index provider ejected Engro Corporation (ENGRO) from MSCI Emerging Markets Index. Resultantly, ENGRO crashed 5% with only 0.66m shares exchanging hands. On the flipside, some respite was perceived on the external front given allowance of $3b borrowing from international debt markets. At close, KSE-100 was down 0.7%; activity improved as volumes rose 60% while value was up 57%.
Worst index point performers were ENGRO (down 5%), OGDC (2.2%), DAWH (5%), MCB (2.1%) & PPL (1.3%), withholding 235 points from the index out of which ENGRO was 85; while HBL (up 1%), HUMNL (4%), NESTLE (1.3%), SEARL (1.3%) & FCCL (1.3%) added 56 points to the index.
Volume leaders during the day were ANL with 18.6m shares, contributing 13% to total market volumes, UNITYR with 14.5m shares traded contributing 10%, and TRG with 8.9m shares traded contributing 6% to total market activity. These three scrips cumulatively generated 30% of total volumes.
Volumes stood at 140m shares as compared to 87mn shares traded previously, while traded value rose to Rs6bn/ $55.5m.