KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) Tuesday witnessed a volatile day and even lost 38,000 mark in the intra-day trading but closed almost flat after adding just 43.41 points to take the tally to 38525.11 level.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 40131.37 points and lowest level of 39931.52 points, with the volume of 96.36 million shares and value of Rs4.58 billion. As many as 347 companies were active; of which 100 advanced, 229 declined and 18 remained unchanged.
TRG Pak Ltd was the volume leader with 18.61 million shares, shedding Rs0.42 to reach Rs31.72. It was followed by Crescent Star with 16.02 million shares, gaining Rs0.39 to end at Rs0.40 and Bank Al-Falah with 13.32 million shares, shedding Rs0.29 to close at Rs38.25.
The top three gainers were Nestle Pakistan with price per share of 12440 (245), Pak Tobacco with price per share of 1966 (56) and United Brands of 323.47 (15.37).
The top three losers were Rafhan Maize with price per share of 6500 (-200), Sapphire Tex with price per share of 1709.05 (-89.94) and Wyeth Pak Ltd share of 1424.50 (-73.75).
Earlier, the stocks opened bearish after shedding 76 points to reach 38406 level in early trading. The bearish note further intensified at PSX till midday as the benchmark 100-index shed huge 718 points to drop to 37764 level.
Yesterday the PSX benchmark KSE-100 continued to crash hard, clocking in a fresh 2017 intra-day low of 38,375 points before bouncing slightly to close the day at 38,482 points, down by 598 points. This has pushed KSE-100 year to date fall to 20%, while index has crashed 27% from its peak.
Top 10 index point decliners were LUCK (down 3.9%), PSO (5%), ENGRO (2.6%), DAWH (3.6%), MCB (7%), SNGP (5%), DGKC (3.6%), SEARL (5%), HBL (0.8%) & ISL (5%); withholding 311 points from the index, while stocks including OGDC (up 3%), PPL (2.2%), POL (0.8%), MARI (2%) & NESTLE (1%) added 130 points to the index.
On the sector front, cement eroded 123 points, fertilizer 118 points, banks 100 points, OMCs 97 points, auto assemblers 53 points, engineering 43 points, power 36 points, pharmaceuticals 34 points, refinery 21points, tech & transport 20 points each, while dollar hedge E&Ps added 124 points. Traded volumes plummeted by 13% DoD to 129m shares while value traded dropped to $56m.
