KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange Friday shed most of the early gains in the last session. The benchmark 100-index at a stage crossed the psychological barrier of 40,000 mark but lost the landmark stage.
The PSX surged by 46.04points to close at 39907.64 points level on the last trading day of the week.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 40083.06 points and lowest level of 39861.60 points, with the volume of over 277.57 million shares, having about Rs 12.08 billion value. As many as 357 companies were active; of which 184 advanced, 152 declined and 21 remained unchanged.
Power generation & distribution was the top traded sector with 60,864,000 volume, while commercial banks remained second with 31,857,400 volume.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 56.24 million shares, losing Rs 0.10 to finish at Rs 8.71. It was followed by Dewan Motor with 15.29 million shares, adding Rs 1.01 to end at Rs 21.22 and Dewan Salman with 14.96 million shares, gaining Rs 3.38 to close at Rs 14.96.
The top three gainers were Island Textile with price per share of 1099.73 (52.36), Colgate Palmo with price per share of 1500 (50.60) and Nestle Pak per share of 7450 (50).
The top three losers were Phillip Morris Pak with price per share of 1341 (-70.13), Pak Tobacco with price per share of 1045.05 (-54.93) and Highnoon (Lab) per share of 602 (-27.91).
Earlier, the stocks opened gaining 112 points to reach another record level of 39973.92 points in early trading. The Pakistan Stock Exchange crossed psychological barrier of 40,000 and reached 40060.78 points level after gaining 199.18 points till midday.
On Thursday, the PSX rose to new highest-ever level. The 100-share index closed at 39861.60 points after gaining 55.72 points (0.14%). Volatility prevailed in the market yesterday, brokers said. The oil sector remained under pressure throughout the day on the back of declining global crude oil prices. Major laggards of the sector were OGDC (down 0.73%) and POL (1.26%). Top performers of the sector were ACPL (up 3.37%) and KOHC (2.28%). The automobile sector remained depressed throughout the day as sales for the month of July were disappointing, where INDU (down 2.15%) was the major laggard of the sector. Volumes increased by 59% to 385m shares while value increased by 7% to Rs 13.2b/$127m.
