KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange closed week on bearish note as the benchmark 100-inex shed 209.73 points to drop to 44536.91 level on Friday.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 44785.32 points and lowest level of 44467.44 points, with the volume of 139.41 million shares and value of Rs5.04 billion. As many as 354 companies were active; of which 166 advanced, 165 declined and 23 remained unchanged.
Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 21.09 million shares, adding Rs0.26 to reach Rs12.25. It was followed by Unity Foods Ltd with 13.20 million shares, losing Rs1.31 to end at Rs30.44 and Shabbir Tiles & Ceramis with 10.35 million shares, gaining Rs0.44 to close at Rs21.88.
The top three gainers were Island Textile Mills Ltd with price per share of 1145.76 (54.56), Siemens (Pak) Eng. Co. Ltd with price per share of 1098.66 (52.31) and Khyber Tobacco Co. Ltd of 760.23 (35.75).
The top three losers were Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd with price per share of 8100 (-345), Colgate Palmolive (Pak) Ltd with price per share of 2960 (-154) and Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd.(R) share of 2212.69 (-116.45).
Earlier, the bearish trend started trading at the Pakistan Stock Exchange and shed 205 points to drop to 44542 level in early trading. The bearish trend continued at the PSX till midday as the benchmark 100-index shed another 222 points to reach 44524 level.
On Thursday, the bearish trend at the PSX continued with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing 450 points to fall below the 45,000 mark.
The positive opening at the index lasted only a few minutes, and midway through the day got only worse, with the index marking an intra-day low of over 700 points before closing at 44,747.
Elixir Securities attributed the fall to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) “now seeing country’s growth for FY19 slowing down to 4.7pc against the government’s growth target of 6.2pc for next year.”
In all, 144.2 million shares worth Rs6.6 billion were traded at the exchange. Of the 373 traded stocks, only 85 advanced, 271 declined and 17 remained unchanged.