KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday lost the previous gains after shedding 181 points to drop to 43437 level in early trading.
On Tuesday, with 39 percent recovery in volumes, the stocks kept on its positive momentum as the benchmark KSE 100-share index closed up 207 points at 43,618 points.
Major contribution to total market volumes came from ANL (+5.75 percent), NRSL (+3.54 percent) and PAEL (+1.66 percent), constituting 25m shares out of the all shares of 152m shares. Major gainers to the index were MCB (+1.28 percent), HUBC (+1.51 percent), POL (+1.01 percent), NBP (+2.44 percent) and UBL (+0.57 percent), contributing 81 points to the index. Investor interest was witnessed in SNGP (+1.0 percent) and SSGC (+2.47 percent) from gas utilities on back of the news of the government deciding to increase gas prices by 5-7 per cent, involving additional revenue of Rs18 billion to cover losses of the two gas utilities.
E&P sector closed higher as crude oil prices edged higher in international market. POL (+1.01 percent) and OGDC (+0.26 percent) were the major gainers of the mentioned sector. Steel sector continued to show positive momentum on back of rumors of increase in steel prices. INIL (+2.05 percent), MUGHAL (+2.87 percent) and ASTL (+1.01 percent) closed in the green zone.
The broader market index witnessed rise of 51 percent in traded value. The advance to decline ratio of the market remained in favor of bulls at 1.6 as 204 stocks closed in green zone and 128 in red zone.
