KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday witnessed another bearish day as the benchmark 100-index shed huge 925 points to drop to 42153.38 points level.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 43135.01 points and lowest level of 42016.87 points, with the volume of about 153.15 million shares and value of Rs7.80 billion. As many as 364 companies were active; of which 44 advanced, 310 declined and 10 remained unchanged.
Azgard Nine was the volume leader with 15.12 million shares, shedding Rs.022 to reach Rs16.04. It was followed by BoP with 11.41 million shares, dropping Rs0.59 to end at Rs9.73 and TRG Pak Ltd with 8.75 million shares, losing Rs2.11 to close at Rs40.77.
The top three gainers were Rafhan Maize with price per share of 6800 (125), Philip Morris Pak with price per share of 2550 (49) and National Foods of 347.28 (16.53).
The top three losers were Unilever Foods with price per share of 5890 (-310), Wyeth Pak Ltd with price per share of 2155.55 (-113.45) and Sanofi-Aventis share of 1734.31 (-91.27).
Earlier, the PSX started new week on negative note and shed 106 points to reach 42972 points level in early trading. The bearish note further intensified at stocks as the benchmark 100-index shed massive 470 points to drop to 42608.66 points level till midday.
On Friday, the stocks closed in red on weekend, with the benchmark 100-share index losing 57.68 points and closing at 43,078.38 points.
Market remained negative during the first half of the day, making an intra-day low of 789 points; however recovery was seen during the second half as the index made an intra-day high of 51 points to eventually close 58 points down.
Poor investor sentiments in the banking sector weighed down the index by 29 points as MCB (down 0.16%), HBL (0.81%) and UBL (0.28%) closed lower. ENGRO (down 1.62%) announced its 1H2017 results, where the company posted an EPS of Rs7.21 (down 32% YoY), accompanied with a DPS of Rs7.0. HMB (-0.18%) also posted its 1H2017 result, posting an EPS of Rs2.14 (down 6% YoY), in line with our expectations.
Volumes remained thin at 188m shares, however traded value increased to Rs11b/$107m. Shares of total 378 companies were traded in the session of which 203 declined, 154 advanced while 21 remained unchanged.