KARACHI: After witnessing a record-breaking opening, the Pakistan Stock Exchange took a rollercoaster slide and lost the historic 40,000 mark as the benchmark 100-inded shed 286.32 points or 0.71 per cent to close at 39771.20 points level on Thursday.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 40213.89 points and lowest level of 39742.78 points, with the volume of over 239.05 million shares, having about Rs 13.77 billion value. As many as 383 companies were active; of which 98 advanced, 259 declined and 26 remained unchanged.
Technology & communication was the top traded sector with 34,878,500 volume, while power generation & distribution remained second with 27,985,600 volume.
TRG Pak Ltd was the volume leader with 30.48 million shares, gaining Rs 1.24 to finish at Rs 36.45. It was followed by K-Electric Ltd with 20.17 million shares, adding Rs 0.05 to end at Rs 8.67 and Pace (Pak) Ltd with 12.34 million shares, gaining Rs 0.07 to close at Rs 6.79.
The top three gainers were Colgate Palmo with price per share of 1568 (68), Punjab Oil with price per share of 312.55 (14.88) and Sanofi-Aventis per share of 650.33 (10.88).
The top three losers were Rafhan Maize with price per share of 7514.66 (-100.34), Unilever Foods with price per share of 5725 (-80.83) and Wyeth Pak Ltd per share of 2000 (-47).
Earlier, the stocks again started upward rally in early trading in added 139.37 points to reach 40196.89 points level. The PSX lost the early gains till midday, shedding 126.51 points to reach 39931.01 points level.
On Wednesday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange ended steady after it hit an all-time closing high in the previous session, as investors sold blue chip stocks such as MCB Bank to book profits. Turnover fell by one million shares to 239.01 million shares, trading value rose to Rs15.37 billion against Rs13.27 billion, while market capital expanded to Rs8.01 trillion from Rs8.00 trillion. Of a total of 414 companies’ active in the session, 178 recorded in green, 214 in red while 22 remained unchanged.
K-Electric Ltd remained the volume leader with 17.43 million shares with an increase of six paisas to Rs8.62/share. It was followed by Pak Elektron with 13.09 million shares with an increase of 80 paisas to Rs74.64/share.