KARACHI: Opened on positive note, the Pakistan Stock Exchange benchmark 100-Index closed lower on Thursday, losing 116.66 points to drop to 41206.99 points level on last trading day before Eid holidays.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 41362.87 points and lowest level of 40842.50 points, with the volume of over 70.55 million shares and value of Rs5.42 billion. As many as 320 companies were active; of which 195 advanced, 110 declined and 15 remained unchanged.
TRG Pak Ltd was the volume leader with 7.63 million shares, adding Rs1.51 to reach Rs35.38. It was followed by United Bank with 13.88 million shares, dropping Rs3.53 to end at Rs186.13 and Azgard Nine with 3.73 million shares, adding Rs0.49 to close at Rs13.83.
The top three gainers were Nestle Pakistan with price per share of 11118.99 (561.50), Sanofi-Aventis with price per share of 1567.01 (78.75) and Millat Tractors of 1164.53 (55.56).
The top three losers were Unilever Foods with price per share of 6400 (-149.99), Highnoon (Lab) with price per share of 386.16 (-20.27) and Indus Motor Co share of 1744.54 (-20).
Earlier, the PSX opened on positive note after adding 37 points to reach 41360 points level in early trading. The PSX became bearish till midday as the benchmark 100-index shed 263.67 points to drop to 41059.98 points level.
On Wednesday, the stocks showed modest recovery on institutional support in oversold scrips. The benchmark 100-share index gained 90.57 points. Investors showed bullish sentiment for most part of the day in previous day’s trading session as market gained to make an intra-day high of 325 points, however it closed at 41,323 points.
Top 10 contributors to index points included NESTLE (up 4.6%), DGKC (5%), LUCK (1.8%), MLCF (5%), PAKT (5%), MTL (3.7%), ENGRO (1%), BAFL (3.4%), PAEL (4%) & THALL (3.5%) which added 221 points. HBL for the 3rd consecutive day closed at lower lock, eroding 143 points from the index level.
TRG led the volume with a total of 20 million shares being exchanged. Brokers expect volatility to persist in the near future and recommend investors to sell on strength.
Volume improved by 2% to 132m shares, as compared to 130m shares in the previous trading session. Whereas traded value was up 18% to Rs7.1b. Scrips of total 358 active companies traded in the session of which 203 closed in green, 140 in red while 15 remained unchanged.
