KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange continued to lose ground ahead of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s planned rally on August 9, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing 486 points (1.05 per cent) to drop below the 46,000 points barrier and close at 45,979.70.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 46517.55 points and lowest level of 45905.02 points, with the volume of about 205.78 million shares and value of Rs8.83 billion. As many as 371 companies were active; of which 81 advanced, 275 declined and 15 remained unchanged.
Summit Bank was the volume leader with 27.211 million shares, shedding Rs0.66 to reach Rs3.70. It was followed by K-Electric with 17.67 million shares, losing Rs0.39 to end at Rs6.91 and TRG Pak Ltd with 16.11 million shares, dropping Rs0.18 to close at Rs43.45.
The top three gainers were Philip Morris Pak with price per share of 2693.15 (107.17), Sanofi-Aventis with price per share of 2130.38 (74.04) and Murree Brewery of 834.91 (39.41).
The top three losers were Rafhan Maize with price per share of 7030 (-370), Unilever Foods with price per share of 6224 (-253) and Khyber Tobacco share of 821.05 (-43.21).
Earlier, the PSX remained under pressure in early trading as the benchmark 100-index added 30 points to reach 46496 points level. The stocks witnessed fluctuation till midday but remained in green zone as the benchmark 100-index gained 34 points to reach 46500 points level.
On Monday, the stocks started week on a bearish note, with benchmark 100-share index losing 412 points to close at 46,466 points.
Decline in stock prices is plausibly a result of jitters felt from the political impact of recently ousted PM’s rally. EPCL (down 2.08%) declared its financial results for 1H2017; an EPS of Rs1.58 was announced that stood below investors’ expectations for the quarter.
Major laggards were LUCK (down 1.96%), HUBC (1.58%), and ISL (4.81%) as they cumulatively wiped away 87 points from the index. On a sector wise level, commercial banks dragged down the market by 51 points, with UBL (down 1.16%), NBP (0.54%) and MCB (0.73%) were among the major losers from the sector. Owing to lower global oil prices, OGDC (down 1.10%), POL (1.45%) and PPL (down 0.63%) from the E&P sector also ended in the red zone. Volumes were lower at 241m shares, compared to 346m shares in the previous session. While traded value declined to Rs10b.
