KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday hit its highest-ever closing level, buoyed by strong performers in steel and banking sectors.
The benchmark KSE-100 index climbed 0.51 per cent or 242.03 points to reach 47666.66points level.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 47713.34 points and lowest level of 47424.63points, with the volume of over 390 million shares and value of Rs 18.62 billion. As many as 417 companies were active; of which 282 advanced, 118 declined and 17 remained unchanged.
Dost Steels Ltd was the volume leader with 40.10 million shares, gaining Rs 0.97 to finish at Rs 11.52. It was followed by BoP with 35.02 million shares, adding Rs 0.84 to end at Rs 18.40 and K-Electric with 28.45 million shares, gaining Rs 0.05 to close at Rs 9.30.
The top three gainers were Unilever Foods with price per share of 5932 (282), Sanofi-Aventis with price per share of 2720.41 (129.54) and Wyeth Pak Ltd share of 4725 (119.24).
The top three losers were Bata (Pak) with price per share of 4470 (-230), Nestle Pakistan with price per share of 9000 (-145.71) and Philip Morris Pak per share of 2650 (-102.08).
Earlier, the stocks started day with bullish note and gained 151 points to reach 47575.49 points level in early trading. The bullish trend continued at the PSX as the benchmark added 242.29 points to reach 47667 points level till midday.
On Wednesday, the PSX shares index broke all previous records and closed at highest-ever level of 47,424.63 points by rallying 504.16 points (1.07%). HBL and MCB led the index by contributing 85 points to the gain and were up by 1.5 percent and 2.4 percent respectively. Fertiliser sector gained on the back of fertiliser off take numbers released by National Fertiliser Development Centre (NFDC) for the month of November, which indicated a MoM increase of 112%/32% for Urea/DAP, respectively. EFERT (rose 1.89%) and FFBL (1.61%) were major performers of the aforementioned sector. Overall, volumes increased by 37 percent to 273 million shares, while value rose by 49 percent to Rs16.4 billion.
