KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday witnessed renewed selling pressure on the penultimate trading session of the week as the benchmark KSE-100 Index lost massive 507 points to once again lose the psychological barrier of 48,000 points and closed at 47,950.58.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 48553.16 points and lowest level of 47908.34 points, with the volume of over 233.38 million shares and value of Rs12.04 billion. As many as 378 companies were active; of which 97 advanced, 261 declined and 20 remained unchanged.
Aisha Steel Mill was the volume leader with 20.18 million shares, shedding Rs 0.94 to finish at Rs 24.40. It was followed by Lotte Chemical with 17.12 million shares, gaining Rs 0.29 to end at Rs 11.16 and Sui South Gas with 14.21 million shares, adding Rs 1.65 to close at Rs 26.54.
The top three gainers were Sapphire Tex with price per share of 1321.58 (62.939), Exide (PAK) with price per share of 888.90 (31.24) and Murree Brewery share of 798.04 (23.04).
The top three losers were Mari Petroleum with price per share of 1506.38 (-79.28), Rafhan Maize with price per share of 7000 (-50) and Khyber Tobacco per share of 900 (-43.52).
Earlier, the stocks started day on negative note and shed 122 points in early trading to reach 48335 points level. The bearish note continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange till midday as the benchmark 100-index shed 137 points to drop to 48320 points level.
On Wednesday, the stock market extended its previous day gain as the index gained around 207 points or (0.43%) to close at 48,457.26 points.
PSMC led the sales number with 19 percent YoY growth as Wagon R continue to be the star variant of the auto assembler (113pc YoY higher). Apart from the E&P sector major contribution to the index came from SNGP (gain 2.99pc), MARI (2.69pc) and FCCL (2.46pc), whereas LUCK (slip 0.89pc), ENGRO (0.86pc) and DGKC (0.50pc) lost value to weigh down on the index.
Market participation improved considerably with traded volume and value both surging by 48 percent to 218 million shares and Rs11.2 billion/$107 million, respectively. However, activity still remains well below YTD average volume daily of 327 million shares and value of Rs16 billion.
