Upper & Lower Cap Stocks

These PSX stocks are pinned at the edge of their daily price band, locked at either the upper cap or the lower cap. The exchange lets a scrip move by the greater of 10% of its previous close or Re 1 in a session, so low-priced shares get the rupee band rather than the percentage one. During market hours the screen compares each stock's latest price with the previous close, so it lists names sitting at the band as of the most recent 15-minute batch — and drops them if they trade off it; once the session ends, it shows the stocks that closed locked. Moves that go beyond the band are treated as something other than a lock and excluded, which keeps rights letters and freshly relisted scrips out. ETFs, debt instruments, rights and other non-equity issues, suspended and delisted scrips, and defaulter-segment companies are all excluded from the universe. Rows are sorted by day change, so upper caps lead the table and lower caps sit at the bottom. For the largest moves regardless of whether they reached the band, see Top Gainers and Top Losers.

It means the share closed at the highest price the exchange permitted for that session — the greater of 10% above the previous close or Re 1. Retail traders also call it an upper lock, upper circuit, or freeze, and the opposite end of the band is a lower cap or lower lock. Because of the Re 1 floor, a cheap scrip can be capped on a much larger percentage move than 10%. See Circuit Breaker for the full mechanics of the PSX price band.

At an upper lock almost everyone in the order book is a buyer and sellers step away, so there is nothing to trade against at the cap price. Your order can sit in the queue all day and never fill, and the same problem hits you in reverse if you are trying to sell a stock at its lower cap. That is the practical risk of these names: the move is biggest exactly when liquidity is thinnest.

A lock tells you the order book was one-sided for a session, nothing more. Some follow real news — strong results, a payout, a merger or a regulatory decision — and continue; others are speculation in a low-float small cap with very little volume behind the price. Consecutive upper locks on shrinking volume are a warning sign rather than confirmation, and the unwind is usually as sharp as the run.

Top Gainers and Top Losers rank the largest percentage moves of the session whether or not they reached the price band. This page only shows stocks pinned at the band itself, so a big mover that stopped short of the limit will not appear here, while a low-priced share capped under the Re 1 rule can show up on a very different percentage.

During market hours the screen reads the latest 15-minute price batch, so a share that touched the cap and then eased off it before the batch was taken will not show. After the close it records only the stocks that were still locked when the session ended. Open its stock page for the intraday high and the announcement behind the move.

Open a BSL trading account for PSX execution, research and live market data. The practical value on names like these is seeing the announcement that caused the lock and the depth on each side before you commit — our desk can walk you through account opening, CDC sub-account setup and funding. Nothing on this page is a recommendation to buy or sell — it is a screen, and the decision stays yours. See our disclaimer.