KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange Friday remained under pressure whole the day as profit-taking continued. The benchmark 100-index shed 56.49 points to drop to 39390.21 points level at closing.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 39507.80 points and lowest level of 39330.02 points, with the volume of over 262.62 million shares, having about Rs 9.06 billion value. As many as 332 companies were active; of which 161 advanced, 154 declined and 17 remained unchanged.
Power generation and distribution was the top traded sector with 95,720,500 volume, while cement remained second with 37,671,150 volume.
K-Electric Ltd. was the volume leader with 88.43 million shares, gaining Rs 0.45 to finish at Rs 8.65. It was followed by Dewan Cement with 28.38 million shares, losing Rs 0.53 to close at Rs 16.60 and Dewan Salman with 18.17 million shares, gaining Rs 0.68 to close at Rs 2.84.
The top three gainers were Rafhan Maize with price per share 7499.99 (239.99), Nestle Pak with price per share of 7500 (99.99) and Island Textile price per share of 942.63 (44.88).
The top three losers were Philip Morris Pak with price per share of 1539.05 (-80.95), Feroze 1888 with price per share of 270.76 (-14.25) and Sapphire Fiber per share of 526 (-10.76).
Earlier, the stocks opened bearish, shedding 6 points to reach 39441 points level. The PS remained flat after adding 6.80 points to reach 39453.50 points level till midday.
On Thursday, the stocks fell deeper after the indices wiped off gains of the morning season. Profit taking in the cement sector dented the index most. The bourse traded opposite to regional peers, which edged up. The benchmark index jumped 208.38 points to 39,824.14 in early trading hours but failed to sustain gains and dropped to a low of 39,395.79, a fall of 219.97 points. The index landed down 169.06 points at 39,446.70. The KMI 30 index traded was supported by the oil sector as it hit a high of 70,053.68 up 536.59 points but later shed 368.06 points. The index ended the session at 69,218.91, 298.18 points in the red. The market volumes slipped down to 204.85 million from 227.61 million.
