KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday made history by crossing the psychological barrier of 40,000 as the benchmark 100-index gained 122.88 points to close at 40030.52 level.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 40104.15 points and lowest level of 39907.64 points, with the volume of over 216.38 million shares, having about Rs 10.62 billion value. As many as 372 companies were active; of which 207 advanced, 141 declined and 24 remained unchanged.
Cement was the top traded sector with 29,237,700 volume, while power generation & distribution remained second with 20,848,000 volume.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 17.66 million shares, losing Rs 0.10 to finish at Rs 8.62. It was followed by Dewan Motor with 15.25 million shares, adding Rs 0.11 to end at Rs 21.67 and Dewan Cement with 13.74 million shares, gaining Rs 1.00 to close at Rs 18.34.
The top three gainers were Rafhan Maize with price per share of 7631.89 (290), Murree Brewery with price per share of 844 (39.70) and Pak Services per share of 776.98 (36.99).
The top three losers were Phillip Morris Pak with price per share of 1307 (-34), Indus Dyeing with price per share of 520 (-20) and Ferozsons (Lab) per share of 1046.44 (-18.44).
Earlier, the PSE opened keeping bullish trend of previous week and crossed the psychological barrier of 40,000 marks as the benchmark 100-index added 104 points to reach 40011.84 points level in early trading. The stocks remained bullish till midday and gained another 136.87 points to reach record 40044.51 points level.
Last week, the overall sentiments remained positive at the bourse; however the benchmark KSE-100 Index failed to close above the psychological mark of 40,000. The Index did manage to cross the barrier a few times during the last trading session, but closed at 39,907 (+1.3 percent WoW). Overall market activity remained healthy with major interest seen in sectors like leisure goods (+5 percent WoW), pharmaceuticals (+2.2 percent WoW), autos (+2.3 percent WoW) and gas water and utilities (+0.5 percent WoW).
Out of the Index heavyweights, cements (+2.3 percent WoW on strong cement numbers recorded during July-16), banks (+2.5 percent with value buyers jumping back in) and Oil & Gas (+3.1 percent WoW on rebounding global crude prices) remained in the limelight. Overall participation also recorded improvement with average volume and value trade increasing by 18 percent WoW and 5 percent WoW, respectively. Average daily volumes witnessed 18 percent increase, with volumes clocking in at 265.1 million shares. On the other hand, average daily values climbed 5 percent to Rs11.4 billion/ $109.3 million
