Trading activities significantly improved due to activities in second- and third-tier stocks and the volume increased to 296.332 million shares as compared to 218.146 million shares traded on Tuesday. Market capitalisation declined by Rs 15 billion to Rs 2.845 trillion.
Of 399 active stocks, 244 closed in negative and 139 in positive, while the value of 16 scrips remained unchanged. Lotte Pakistan was the volume leader with 42.683 million shares, however lost Re. 0.06 to close at Rs 10.28. Bank Falah and NBP gained Re. 0.23 and Re. 0.03 to close at Rs 14.21 and Rs 82.74 with 34.142 million shares and 9.391 million shares respectively.
Jahangir Siddiqui Co increased by Re. 0.30 to close at Rs 32.96 with 25.950 million shares. TRG Pakistan gained Re. 0.10 to close at Rs 3.03 with 22.991 million shares. Azgard Nine surged by Rs 1.10 to close at Rs 23.24 with 13.959 million shares. Pace (Pak) closed at Rs 6.036, slightly down by Re. 0.01 with 11.513 million shares. Nishat (Chunian) gained Re. 0.19 to close at Rs 25.56 with 9.068 million shares. Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim lost Re. 0.18 to close at Rs 30.36 with 8.246 million shares. PTCL declined by Re. 0.23 to close at Rs 19.77 with 7.993 million shares.
Unilever Pakistan and Unilever Food were the highest gainers and increased by Rs 99.82 and Rs 9.75 to close at Rs 2609.83 and Rs 1310.00 respectively, while Dreamworld and Wyeth Pak were the worst losers and declined by Rs 30.97 and Rs 30.25 to close at Rs 588.53 and Rs 1223.08 respectively.
Hasnain Asghar Ali at Aziz Fidahusein Co said that the session opened with re-emergence of judicial issues. Its likely impact on the political set-up did increase nervousness, led by selling in main board stocks mainly those carrying reservations over payout and revenues. The index trimmed at a rapid pace. Thanks to the undervalued junk stocks and investment companies, the stocks invited turnover. The top five volume leaders contributed 50 percent of the total volumes.
The unconfirmed news that a foreign group bank might become the buyer for RBS besides the news that the bank is close to getting its strategic asset listed at the local bourse, thus allowing the stock to lead the turnover. The confirmed news that one of the listed companies is all set to enlist its strategic holding in unlisted fertiliser company allowed the stocks likely to benefit from a higher strike price to stay amongst the volume leaders.