KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday shed early gains and closed almost flat as the benchmark 100-index gained 33.19 points to reach 49908.15 points level.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 50196.83 points and lowest level of 49784.33 points, with the volume of over 538.90 million shares and value of Rs 24.47 billion. As many as 417 companies were active; of which 173 advanced, 219 declined and 25 remained unchanged.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 61.73 million shares, remaining unchanged Rs 0.00 to finish at Rs 10.21. It was followed by Power Cement Ltd with 36.67 million shares, adding Rs 0.74 to end at Rs 17.99 and Dost Steels Ltd with 35.35 million shares, gaining Rs 0.35 to close at Rs 15.35.
The top three gainers were Colgate Palmolive with price per share of 1994.13 (94.13), Wyeth Pak Ltd with price per share of 4432.50 (72.80) and Khyber Tobacco share of 997.50 (47.50).
The top three losers were Bata (Pak) with price per share of 4120 (-174), Rafhan Maize with price per share of 7506 (-113) and Nestle Pakistan per share of 9000 (-99.99).
Earlier, the stocks opened bearish and lost 90.63 points to drop to 49784 points level in early trading. The PSX recouped previous losses and gained 78.42 points to reach 49953 points level till midday.
On Wednesday, the stocks witnessed a range bound session as investors preferred to book profits and remain cautious, resultantly the PSX index almost closed flat. Volatility prevailed in the market as the index traded between an intraday high of 175 points and an intraday low of 117 points to finally close on a flat note up (0.03%). Index heavy weight MCB Bank (MCB) and United Bank (UBL) declined between (4%-4.6%) while Nishat Mills (NML), Engro Corp (ENGRO) and International Steels (ISL) supported the index to close in green. Lotte Chemical emerged as volume leader with 39 million trade shares. Overall, volumes increased by 25 percent to 498 million shares, while traded value rose by 20 percent to Rs20.7 billion.
