KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange closed the week on bullish note as the benchmark 100-index gained 81.91 points to take the tally to 45542.78 level on Friday, when the ruling party was presenting its last budget for fiscal year 2-18-19.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 45671.76 points and lowest level of 45458.25 points, with the volume of 224.76 million shares and value of Rs9.87 billion. As many as 358 companies were active; of which 178 advanced, 178 declined and 17 remained unchanged.
BYCO Petroleum Pak Ltd was the volume leader with 29.11 million shares, adding Rs0.57 to reach Rs15. It was followed by Fatima Fertilizer Co Ltd with 18.67 million shares, gaining Rs1.08 to end at Rs33.83 and Matco Foods Limited with 10.97 million shares, shedding Rs1.77 to close at Rs41.17.
The top three gainers were Sapphire Tex with price per share of 1889.85 (70.09), Island Textile Mills Ltd with price per share of 989.76 (47.13) and Pakistan Services Limited of 992 (46.22).
The top three losers were Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd with price per share of 9000 (-200), Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd.(R) with price per share of 2580.75 (-135.80) and Philip Morris (Pakistan) Ltd share of 2900 (-50).
The stocks started the last trading day of the week on positive note and added 151 points to reach 45612 level in early trading. The Pakistan Stock Exchange became flat till midday after shedding the early gains as the benchmark 100-index gained 13 points to reach 45473 level.
On Thursday, the stock market closed lower in another bearish session as investors continued to stay on the sidelines. At close, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded a decrease of 257.47 points or 0.56% to settle at 45,460.87.
Nearly 9.3 million shares of the bank were traded in the regular market at the upper price limit while a remarkable activity was seen in the off-market where about 49 million shares changed hands at an average of Rs11.76 per share, around 11% premium over the day’s closing price.
Crescent Steel (-4.8%) hit the lower price limit after announcing poor results and Hub Power (-1%) closed lower on unexciting earnings.
Following the market’s close, Lucky Cement (+0.5%) announced its earnings that came slightly below expectations, but more importantly the company disclosed plans for a brownfield expansion of 2.6 million tons per annum at its Pezu Plant, scheduled to come on line by the end of 2019.
Overall, trading volumes decreased to 170 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 181 million. Shares of 393 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 147 stocks closed higher, 228 declined while 18 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs7.2 billion.
