KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed a bullish day on the first day of new week but shed most of the early gains at closing and ended almost flat as the benchmark 100 index gained 25 paisas to reach 41648.65 level on Monday.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 41912.68 points and lowest level of 41591.44 points, with the volume of 88.45 million shares and value of Rs3.70 billion. As many as 306 companies were active; of which 111 advanced, 173 declined and 22 remained unchanged.
Fauji Cement Co Ltd was the volume leader with 6.04 million shares, adding Rs0.30 to reach Rs24.61. It was followed by Pakistan Elektron Ltd with 5.92 million shares, gaining Rs0.26 to end at Rs35.82 and Engro Polymer & Chemicals Ltd with 5.53 million shares, losing Rs1.52 to close at Rs33.19.
The top three gainers were Pakistan Tobacco Co Ltd with price per share of 2000 (87), Island Textile Mills Ltd with price per share of 1139.99 (50.99) and Shezan International Ltd of 553.37 (26.35).
The top three losers were Bata Pakistan Ltd with price per share of 2165.96 (-113.04), Siemens (Pak) Eng. Co. Ltd with price per share of 1056.40 (-17.60) and Mari Petroleum Company Ltd share of 1503.68 (-16.57).
The stocks started day on positive note and added 108 points to reach 41731 level in early trading. The Pakistan Stock Exchange remained bullish till midday as the benchmark 100-index added 136 points to take the tally to 41760 level.
On Friday, the stocks witnessed another lacklustre session on Friday as the 100-share index traded between an intra-day high of +105 points and a low of -412 points to finally close down 246 points at 41,623 points.
Volumes stood at 83 million shares as compared to 57 million shares for the previous trading session. KEL (-1.80%) led the volumes with 6 million shares of the power generation company changing hands. Despite dull activity, stock market appeared to consolidate as prices have fallen down to attractive levels. On the economic front, foreign exchange reserves continued downward trend and declined by $219m to $17.067b. Mixed sentiment were witnessed in the banking sector where MCB (+1.01%) and UBL (+0.64%) closed positive, while on the flipside HBL (-0.44%) and NBP (-0.88%) lost value to close in the red. Cement sector continued its declining trend as heavyweights such as FCCL (-2.49%), LUCK (-2.26%), PIOC (-0.99%) and CHCC (-1.44%) lost value to close in the red zone.