KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday closed positive as the benchmark 100-index added 415.61 points to take the tally to 46949.04 points level.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 46989.27 points and lowest level of 46533.43 points, with the volume of about 367.79 million shares and value of Rs16.84 billion. As many as 389 companies were active; of which 263 advanced, 107 declined and 19 remained unchanged.
K-Electric Ltd was the volume leader with 29 million shares, adding Rs0.24 to reach Rs6.93. It was followed by BoP with 24.03 million shares, gaining Rs0.09 to end at Rs11.36 and TRG Pak Ltd with 23.31 million shares, adding Rs2.13 to close at Rs45.85.
The top three gainers were Philip Morris Pak with price per share of 2788.50 (114.01), Sanofi-Aventis with price per share of 1915.84 (91.23) and Service Ind. Ltd of 1359 (42.79).
The top three losers were Sapphire Textile with price per share of 1800 (-46), Wyeth Pak Ltd with price per share of 2466.06 (-32.96) and Millat Tractors share of 1372.71 (-17.47).
Earlier, the PSX started day adding 305 points to reach 46839 points level in early trading. The stocks remained bullish till midday and gained 207 points to reach 46740 points level.
On Tuesday, the stocks welcomed August with a 523 points (1.1%) gain and the 100-share index closed at 46, 533.43 points. Gains were lead by energy chain sector on the back of higher crude oil prices with US benchmark WTI trading near US$50/bbl after 2 months.
HBL continued to slide, briefly hitting its lower limit during intraday trade as the rumor mill is rife with speculation regarding an alleged penalty. Late interest was seen in the leading bank which stemmed the decline to 2.7%.
Investor sentiment was bullish on account of political certainty and improved inflation numbers which clocked in at 2.91% for the month of July-17. BYCO (up 4.6%) gained on the back of news of production resumed from its 120,000bpd refinery. ASL (up 5.0%) and ISL (rose 5.0%) closed at their respective upper circuits as customs increased import duty on steel giving advantage to local steel industry, stated analyst at JS Global.
Top 5 index point performers were ENGRO (up 4.5%), SNGP (5%), PSO (5%), POL (4%) & OGDC (2%), adding 258 points; while HBL (down 2.7%), ABOT (3.9%), LUCK (7%), KTML (3.1%) & DAWH (0.7%) held back 177 points (out of which HBL was 127 points). Participation thinned as volumes declined 20% to 256m shares while traded value shed 6% to Rs17.6b/$167m.
