Index crosses 17,600 level on hectic buying

KARACHI: Bull-run continued on the second consecutive day at Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) Tuesday and 100-Index gained another 62.86 points to close at record 17,611.40, a dealer said.

Turnover volume was also high at 236.324 million as prices of 152 scrips recorded gains and 172 sustained losses while 22 remained unchanged.

A dealer at a leading brokerage house said that market has been bullish since the start of February. Hectic buying was witnessed in the scrips of cement sector and banking sector specially NBP, MCB Bank and HBL which announced a cash dividend of Rs. 4 per share.

The market capitalization was also improved by Rs. 9.6 billion to Rs. 4.405 trillion.

Fauji Cement was the volume leader with a turnover of 36.010 million shares followed by Maple Leaf Cement 17.106 million shares, TRG Pak 17.059 million shares, Lotte Pak PTA 15.872 million shares and NBP 10.342 million shares.

Maple Leaf Cement closed at 17.83, D G Khan Cement 56.39, OGDC 198.75, NBP 53.67, Fauji Cement 8.21, and Engro Foods 120.04.

Unilever Foods recorded the highest increase of Rs. 100 to 4200 followed by Nestle Pak which went up by 30 to 5030 while Unilever Pak dipped by Rs. 50 to 10,350 and Bata Pak slipped by Rs. 28 to 1457.