BRIndex100 extends gains

A bullish trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange on the last day of the current week Thursday. The market saw fresh buying, mainly by local investors. BRIndex100 gained 47.53 points or 0.98 percent to close at 4,880.67 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,888.98 and intraday low of 4,832.95 points. Volumes stood at 194.644 million shares.
BRIndex30 increased by 199.94 points or 0.81 percent to 24,837.04 points with a turnover of 116.243 million shares. The benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 384.27 points to close above 45,000 psychological level of 45,030.22 points. Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on the ready counter increased to 228.444 million shares as compared to 207.071 million shares traded Wednesday.
The market capitalization increased by Rs 63 billion to Rs 9.261 trillion. Out of total 393 active scrips, 202 closed in positive, 171 in negative while the value of 20 stocks remained unchanged. TRG Pak was the volume leader with 22.335 million shares. It gained Re 0.58 to close at Rs 38.90 followed by Lotte Chemical that inched up by Re 0.08 to close at Rs 10.45 with 15.119 million shares.
Pak Tobacco and Service Industries were the top gainers with Rs 81.57 and Rs 23.57 respectively to close at Rs 2056.57 and Rs 831.11 while Philip Morris Pak and Bata Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 92.51 and Rs 67.55, respectively to close at Rs 2,750.37 and Rs 2,698.00.
BR Commercial Banks Index increased by 90.08 points or 0.97 percent to close at 9,330.80 points with total turnover of 13.767 million shares. BR Cement Index surged by 150.54 points or 2.56 percent to close at 6,022.63 points with 28.002 million shares. BR Oil and Gas Index gained 31.74 points or 0.59 percent to close at 5,373.77 points with 8.047 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index inched up 22.16 points or 1.76 percent to close at 1,278.49 points with 29.317 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index closed at 6,528.33 points, up 27.67 points or 0.43 percent with 9.903 million shares.
Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said that the PSX closed above 45,000 points. With performance, the market closed in the green zone for four consecutive sessions. Bulls continued the run and across the board activity in all key sectors such as chemicals, financials, OMCs and cement was seen. Both local and foreign investors showed aggressive participation in the market, mainly triggered by recent round of PKR depreciation against the greenback.
Interest was also seen in cements by Investors where stocks such as DGKC (up 3.07 percent), LUCK (up 3.30 percent) extending gains on rumors of further price hikes. Apart from cements, interest also remained alive in the E&Ps where POL (up 1.15 percent) and OGDC (up 0.17 percent) performed amidst news of declining US oil inventory data and middle east tensions, giving rise to expectations of further crude oil price increases.