KARACHI: Opened with positive note, the Pakistan Stock Exchange took a roller-coaster ride till closing, shedding 169.06 points to drop to 39446.70 points level on Thursday.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 39824.14 points and lowest level of 39395.79 points, with the volume of over 81.67 million shares, having about Rs 11.34 billion value. As many as 354 companies were active; of which 150 advanced, 185 declined and 19 remained unchanged.
Oil & gas marketing companies was the top traded sector with 26,944,800 volume, while cement remained second with 25,170,800 volume.
Sui North Gas was the volume leader with 18.27 million shares, gaining Rs 0.89 to finish at Rs 46.10. It was followed by Dewan Cement with 14.93 million shares, remained unchanged at Rs 17.01 and Agritech Limited with 13.15 million shares, losing Rs 0.30 to close at Rs 13.50.
The top three gainers were Unilever Foods with price per share 5480 (130), Island Textile with price per share of 897.75 (42.75) and Colgate Palmo price per share of 1479.98 (19.29).
The top three losers were Rafhan Maize with price per share of 7260 (-190), Nestle Pak with price per share of 7400.01 (-79.98) and Sapphire Fiber per share of 536.76 (-28.24).
Earlier, the stock opened recouping overnight losses by gaining 179.35 points to reach 39795.11 points level in early trading. The Pakistan Stock Exchange dropped all the early gains till midday as the benchmark 100-index added just 1.70 point to remain at 39617.46 points level.
On Wednesday, bears took over stock market on banking and oil stocks led decline as the benchmark 100-share index shed 171.17 points to close at 39615.76 points. Volatility prevailed in the market as the index, after hitting an intra-day high of 47 points and intra-day low of 193 points, finally closed in the red zone. PSMC (up 0.7%) in the automobile sector extended its previous day gains on the back of the automobile assembler increasing prices by 3% amid appreciating Yen prices. OGDC (down 1.74%), PPL (1.49%) and POL (1.77%) in the E&P sector remained under pressure throughout the day to close in the red zone, as crude oil prices declined to trade below $40 per barrel. Moreover, investor interest was seen in chemical sector on the back of declining crude oil prices. Major gainers of the aforementioned sector were BERG (up 3.97%) and AKZO (1.95%). Volumes increased by 1% to 227m shares whereas value decreased by 15% to Rs10.6 billion.
