Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a highly volatile session Wednesday. The benchmark KSE-100 index kept moving between 50,037.11 points intra-day high and 49,742.78 points intra-day low level. The index closed at 49,874.96 points with a modest gain of 15.57 points on Wednesday.
Trading activity however improved as daily trading volumes increased to 498.187 million shares as compared to 397.225 million shares traded Tuesday. Out of total 426 active scrips, 236 closed in positive, 177 in negative while the value of 13 stocks remained unchanged. Lotte Chemical was the volume leader with 39.193 million shares. However the scrip lost Rs 0.41 to close at Rs 10.69 followed by Dost Steels that increased by Rs 1.00 to close at Rs 15.63 with 37.342 million. Power Cement gained Rs 0.68 to close at Rs 17.25 with 36.541 million shares.
Sanofi-Aventis and Rafhan Maize were the top gainers with Rs 122.59 and Rs 109.00, respectively to close at Rs 2,900.74 and Rs 7,619.00. Wyeth Pak and Pak Tobacco were the top losers with Rs 211.30 and Rs 40.00, respectively to close at Rs 4,359.70 and Rs 1,160.00.
Nabeel Haroon at JS Global Capital said that volatility prevailed in the market as the index traded between an intraday high of 175 points and an intraday low of 117 points. ISL, INIL and ASL in the steel sector gained to close on their respective upper circuits on the back of the news that NTC has imposed definitive anti-dumping duty in the range of 6-40 percent on dumped imports of Galvanized Steel Coils/Sheets being imported from China. MCB (down 2.92 percent) in the banking sector weighed down on the index, as the bank declared its 2016 result.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that the market closed flat amid pressure in oil stocks after US oil plunges near $52/barrel. Filch affirmed Issuer Default Ratings, renewed institutional interest in banking and cement stocks supported the index to close above session lows. Strong earnings outlook in cement, banking and auto scrips played a catalyst role in higher close in the earnings season at PSX.
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