KARACHI: The bearish trend continued Monday as Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) dropped 227.98 points to reach 30783.79 points level till midday.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 31062.84 points and lowest level of 30599.74 points, with the volume of 73 million shares, having about Rs3 billion value. As many as 269 companies were active; of which 48 advanced, 203 declined and 18 remained unchanged.
Technology & communication was the top traded sector with 12,003,500 volume, while commercial banks remained second with 11,424,300 volume.
The three top traded companies were TRG Pak Ltd with a volume of 8,712,500 and price per share of 24.05 (-0.68), Silk Bank Ltd with a volume 4,725,500 of price per share of 1.58 (-0.05), and Dewan Salman with a volume 4,414,000 of price per share of 1.94 (-0.20).
The top three gainers were Bata (Pak) with price per share 3400 (99.89), Ghandhara Ind with price per share of 436.01 (18.72) and Atlas Honda Ltd price per share of 379.99 (14.99).
The top three losers were Ferozsons (Lab)XD with price per share of 738.54 (-38.87), Murree Brewery with price per share of 723 (-36.80) and Exide (PAK) per share of 718 (-27).
Earlier, the bearish trend entered another week as the Pakistan Stock Exchange opened negative and lost psychological barrier of 31,000, shedding 54.82 points to reach 30956.95 points level in early trading.
Last week, the stock market continued its downward slide as volatile global markets and oil prices weighed heavily on the bourse, resulting in the benchmark KSE-100 index falling by 452 points (1.4%).
The week opened on a strong note on the back of a sharp rebound in oil prices over the weekend which resulted in the KSE-100 index shooting up by 464 points (1.5%) on Monday. However, the sentiment changed quickly the following day with profit-taking kicking in, after the index reached an intra-day high of 32,159, to eventually close down by 255 points at 31,673.
The KSE-100’s bearish streak continued throughout the rest of the week with oil prices again heading downwards and negative sector-specific news flows. The index would shed another 661 points (2%) in the remaining three days to end the week at 31,012. Average daily volumes fell 12% to 123.9 million shares traded per day, while average daily values also fell 17% to Rs6.62 billion per day. The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s market capitalisation stood at Rs6.53 trillion ($62.4 billion) at the end of the week.
