KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 regained most of the early losses but closed flat after adding just 8.49 points to reach 40733.45 level on Wednesday.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 40872.48 points and lowest level of 40224.20 points, with the volume of 138.11 million shares and value of Rs6.18 billion. As many as 343 companies were active; of which 112 advanced, 211 declined and 20 remained unchanged.
Engro Polymer was the volume leader with 21.28 million shares, adding Rs1.58 to reach Rs34.33. It was followed by Azgard Nine with 8.924 million shares, shedding Rs0.19 to end at Rs12.53 and Aisha Steel Mill with 8.80 million shares, losing Rs0.07 to close at Rs18.09.
The top three gainers were Khyber Tobacco with price per share of 1300.09 (61.90), Lucky Cement with price per share of 522.23 (21.24) and Pak. Int. Cont. of 340 (15.82).
The top three losers were Nestle Pakistan with price per share of 12000 (-500), Thal Limited with price per share of 516.08 (-22.42) and Sanofi-Aventis share of 1480 (-20.46).
Earlier, the stocks started day keeping previous day’s bearish note and shed 83 points in early trading to reach 40642 points level. The PSX shed another 232 points till midday to drop to 40493 points level.
On Tuesday, the benchmark KSE 100-index registered a decline of 66 points and closed at 40,725 points. Bullish sentiments prevailed during the initial hours of the day, taking KSE-100 index up by 562 points. However, negative sentiments dragged the index down due to profit-taking and political uncertainty.
Major index movers were INDU (up 2.18%), HCAR (5%), PSMC (5%), POL (3.49%) and SEARL (4.88%) as they cumulatively contributed 102 points to the index gain. On the flipside, LUCK (down 1.44%), ATRL (2.34%), SNGP (4.05%), HUBC (2.10%) and ISL (3.39%) were the major laggards of the index, cumulatively eroding 98 points from the index.
ISL (down 3.39%) from the steel sector announced its 1QFY18 result, where the company posted an EPS of Rs2.31. MCB (-0.30%), NBP (-1.65%) and HBL (0.83%) from the commercial banking sector also shed points. AKBL closed in green zone (up 2.28%) as it announced its result for 9M2017 where company posted EPS of Rs3.35 and DPS of Rs1.
Average daily volumes grew by 34% DoD to 167m shares as news of additional regulatory duty provided impetus to day trading. Likewise, average daily value traded significantly went up by 61% DoD to settle at Rs9.7b/$92m given higher activity in main board items.
Volume leaders during the day were ASL with 15m traded shares, TRG with 11m shares and DSL with 9.5m shares traded. Symbols of 389 active companies were traded in the session of which 147 concluded in advance, 226 in decline while 16 remained unchanged.
