KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday remained bearish over profit-taking and dropped 301.78 points to close at 51511.41 points level.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 51948.27 points and lowest level of 51443.17 points, with the volume of over 371.80 million shares and value of Rs18.133 billion. As many as 393 companies were active; of which 173 advanced, 201 declined and 19 remained unchanged.
WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 38.90 million shares, gaining Rs 0.31 to reach Rs 3.24. It was followed by Dost Steels Ltd with 25.43 million shares, shedding Rs 0.09 to end at Rs 14.88 and Lotte Chemical with 20.85 million shares, increasing Rs 0.49 to close at Rs 12.02.
The top three gainers were Unilever Foods with price per share of 6200 (50), Sanofi-Aventis with price per share of 2129.99 (29.98) and AL-Ghazi Tractors share of 661 (24.73).
The top three losers were Nestle Pakistan with price per share of 9650 (-150), Pak Suzuki with price per share of 841 (-29) and Hinopak Motor share of 1585 (-29).
Earlier, the stocks again started day on negative note as the benchmark 100-index shed 54 points to reach 51759 points level in early trading. The PSX remained bearish till midday and shed another 51603.62 points level.
On Tuesday, the stocks remained volatile as KSE 100-index traded between an intraday high of 459 points and intraday low of 634 points to finally close at 51,813 points down 575 points) as some profit taking was witnessed throughout the day.
Profit taking was witnessed in fertilizer sector as sector heavy weights, FFC (down 3.28%) and FFBL (0.67%), closed in the red zone. However E&P sector continued its previous day momentum as crude oil prices surged to trade at $49.18/bbl level. POL (up 1.55%) and PPL (0.55%) were the major gainers of the mentioned sector.
Total 397 active companies participated in the session, of which 154 finished in positive, 218 in negative while 25 remained unchanged. Market participation improved with volumes up 7% d/d to 378m shares, while traded value rose 1.3% to Rs23.4b.