KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday gained 444.50 points to take to tally to record 40986.31 points level at closing.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 41131.35 points and lowest level of 40541.81 points, with the volume of about 131.89 million shares and value of 17.58 billion. As many as 421 companies were active; of which 292 advanced, 115 declined and 14 remained unchanged.
PIAC(A) was the volume leader with 43.84 million shares, gaining Rs 0.65 to finish at Rs 8.83. It was followed by BO Punjab with 43.48 million shares, adding Rs 0.78 to end at Rs 14.10 and Pace (Pak) Ltd with 42.73 million shares, shedding Rs 0.90 to close at Rs 11.48.
The top three gainers were Nestle Pakistan with price per share of 7800 (200), Wyeth Pak Ltd with price per share of 2415 (115) and Hinopak Motor share of 1509.72 (71.89).
The top three losers were Rafhan Maize with price per share of 7000 (100), Philip Morris Pak with price per share of 1487.12 (-78.26) and Pak Services per share of 860 (-44.05).
Earlier, the stocks opened keeping bullish note as the benchmark 100-index gained 254 points in early trading to take the tally to historic level of 40795.85 points. The bullish note continued its upward journey at the Pakistan Stock Exchange as the index surged by 473.55 points to cross 41,000 mark and reached 41015.36 level till midday.
Last week, the KSE-100 bounced back above 40,000 level again and increased 1.9 percent WoW despite mounting tensions between India and Pakistan at the borders. In contrast to benchmark index, both average traded value ($144 million) and average volume (528 million) declined by 14 percent WoW and 27 percent WoW, respectively during the week.
Of the key sectors, oil & gas (+1.9 percent WoW on crude oil bounce back), gas utilities (+7.1 percent WoW) and autos (+8.2 percent WoW) remained key outperformers whereas cements (+0.3 percent WoW only), fertilisers (+1.7 percent WoW) and banks (+1.3 percent WoW) underperformed the benchmark.
Foreigners were net sellers of $8.6 million during the week. Banks and oil & gas exploration sectors witnessed net selling of $4.2 million and $2.9 million, respectively whereas net buying of $2.6 million was seen in the cement sector. Average daily volumes for the outgoing week decreased 27 percent WoW to 528 million shares while average daily value fell 9 percent WoW to Rs15billion/ $144 million during the week.