KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) Wednesday tried to recovered some previous losses and closed positive as the benchmark KSE-100 gained 303.64 to take the tally to 41595.32level.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 41626.86 points and lowest level of 41291.68 points, with the volume of 102.69 million shares and value of Rs5.43 billion. As many as 372 companies were active; of which 201 advanced, 146 declined and 25 remained unchanged.
Pak Elektron was the volume leader with 15.115 million shares, adding Rs0.82 to reach Rs71.20. It was followed by Aisha Steel Mill with 12.17 million shares, shedding Rs0.21 to end at Rs19.82 and TRG Pak Ltd with 9.77 million shares, gaining Rs0.55 to close at Rs36.49.
The top three gainers were Khyber Tobacco with price per share of 1485.15 (67.82), Hinopak Motor with price per share of 1075.86 (31.36) and Indus Motor Co of 1800 (29.95).
The top three losers were Nestle Pakistan with price per share of 12149 (-249), Bata (Pak) with price per share of 2640 (-130) and Atlas Battery share of 608.75 (-32.03).
The stocks bounced back in early trading and gained 263 points to reach 41555 points level. The Pakistan Stock Exchange remained bullish till midday after adding 219 points to reach 41510.74 points level.
On Tuesday, the bears dominated the PSX for most of the day and as a result the benchmark 100-share index lost another 192 points and closed at 41,291 points.
EFERT and FATIMA from the fertilizer sector declared their result where EFERT (up 2.73%) posted an EPS of Rs2.11 (3Q2017) and announced a cash payout of Rs3.0/share, while FATIMA (down 0.42%) posted an EPS of Rs1.13 (3Q2017) with no payout. Overall cement sector closed negative where heavyweights DGKC (down 1.69%), FCCL (4.51%), CHCC (0.92%) and PIOC (4.34%) were the major victims of the sector, stated dealer at JS Global. Top 5 index point decliners were POL (down 1.3%), NESTLE (1.8%), NBP (1.4%), PSMC (2%) & AICL (1.4%), eroding 32 points, while HBL (up 1.3%), MCB (1.7%), SNGP (5%), HUBC (3%) & PPL (1.5%) added 170 points.
Local mutual funds were net sellers of $3m whereas local banks & insurance bought $1.1m and $1.5m worth of shares, respectively.
A rally was witnessed in the steel sector on back of NTC imposing anti-dumping duty on imported re-bars. ASL (up 4.55%), ASTL (2.21%) and ISL (0.92%) closed positive. E&P sector closed higher as compared to last trading day as crude oil prices edged higher in the global economy. POL (up 1.80%) and PPL (0.33%) were the major gainers of the mentioned sector.
Volume fell 7% d/d while traded value was down 16%. TRG (up 1.65%) led the volume chart with 20m shares exchanging hands.