BRIndex100 turns green

Pakistan Stock Exchange Friday witnessed a bullish trend due to healthy buying in various sectors. BRIndex100 gained 85.45 points or 1.86 percent to close at 4,679.18 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,688.63 and intraday low of 4,593.73 points. Volumes stood at 125.119 million shares. BRIndex30 increased by 435.88 points or 1.82 percent to 24,346.58 points with a turnover of 74.144 million shares.
The benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 684.75 points or 1.59 percent to close at 43,627.10 points. Trading activity however remained low as daily volumes decreased to 148.358 million shares as compared to 219.482 million shares traded Thursday. Foreign investors however remained net sellers of shares worth $0.6 million. The market capitalization increased by Rs 132 billion to Rs 9.051 trillion. Out of total 379 active scrips, 259 closed in positive, only 93 in negative while the value of 27 stocks remained unchanged.
TRG Pak was the volume leader with 13.797 million shares. It gained Re 0.89 to close at Rs 36.44 followed by Azgard Nine that inched up by Re 0.68 to close at Rs 20.00 with 11.269 million shares. Nestle Pakistan and Unilever Foods were the top gainers with Rs 464.99 and Rs 200.00, respectively to close at Rs 11,475.00 and Rs 8,500.00. Rafhan Maize and Shezan International were the top losers with Rs 100.00 and Rs 26.83, respectively to close at Rs 7,200.00 and Rs 509.92.
BR Commercial Banks Index increased by Rs 193.4 points or 2.19 percent to close at 9,043.32 points with total turnover of 18.296 million shares. BR Cement Index gained 64.02 points or 1.16 percent to close at 5,580.58 points with 9.254 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index inched up by 94.14 points or 1.84 percent to close at 5,202.58 points with 8.275 million shares. BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,214.82 points, up 23.29 points or 1.95 percent with 23.596 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index surged by 111.28 points or 1.75 percent to close at 6,461.13 points with 4.063 million shares.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the KSE-100 index made a surprise comeback with up almost 700 points amidst low volumes. Investors were in doubt due to risk from inclusion in gray list of Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Dominant view among market participants prevailed that Pakistan will not be put on gray list. First session saw low volumes although market performed in green zone. Blue chip scrips which saw declines in previous two sessions came in limelight and second session saw increase in activity. Significant price increment was observed in banks, whereby HBL saw rapid price spike of almost Rs 9.00/share in second session.
Sectors contributing to this increase include Commercial Banks (up 244 points), E&P (up 114 points), O&GMCs (up 58 points), Cement (up 48 points) and Pharma (up 36pts). Volumes declined significantly due to fear of after effects of inclusion to FATF gray list, ending at 148 million shares. Average traded value also declined by 24 percent to reach $52.8 million as compared with $69.2 million. Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include TRG, ANL, PSX, FFL and HUMNL reflecting 28 percent of total volumes.
Scripts that contributed positively include HBL (up 107 points), UBL (up 65 points), PPL (up 55 points), LUCK (up 33 points) and OGDC (up 27 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include MLCF (down 10 points), SHFA (down 5 points), JLICL (down 4 points), MEBL (down 3 points) and AICL (down 2 points).