Index gains 56.85 points

Late buying, mainly by foreign investors, on Friday on expectations of tax relief in budget announcement supported the KSE-100 index to close in positive at 12,236.66 points with net gain of 56.85 points. However, trading was low as majority of market players opted to remain on sidelines ahead of budget announcement, and the volume at ready counter declined to 65.315 million shares as compared to 87.31 million shares traded a day earlier.
Market capitalisation increased by Rs 15.161 billion to Rs 3.251 trillion from Rs 3.236 trillion. Of 354 active scrips, 104 closed in negative and 148 in positive, while the values of 102 scrips remained unchanged.
Fauji Cement (R) was the volume leader with 11 million shares, and gained Re 0.04 to close at Re 0.13 per share. D G K Cement surged by Re 0.88 to close at Rs 24.67 with 6.53 million shares. With 4.28 million shares trading, Bank of Punjab increased by Re 0.23 to Rs 6.35. Fatima Fertiliser gained Re 0.10 to close at Rs 13.55 with 3 million shares.
Some 2.4 million shares of Nishat Mills were traded and it lost Re 0.46 to Rs 59.37. Lucky Cement declined by Re 0.22 to Rs 74.75 with 2.38 million shares trading. Jahangir Siddiqui Co lost Re 0.12 to close at Rs 7.68 with 2.28 million shares. Lotte Pakistan PTA inched up by Re. 0.01 to close at Rs 14.97 with 2.26 million shares.
Fauji Cement closed at Rs 4.90 with a gain of Re. 0.26 with 2.2 million shares, and Azgard Nine lost Re 0.13 to close at Rs 6.53 with 1.8 million shares. Nestle Pakistan and Unilever Pak were the highest gainers, increasing by Rs 81.50 and Rs 39.76 to close at Rs 3,452.28 and Rs 5,075.54 respectively, while National Refinery and Packages were the worst losers declining by Rs 1.89 and Rs 1.67 to close at Rs 377.77 and Rs 110.94 respectively.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Investments said that bullish activity was led by institutional and foreign interests at KSE amid thin trade ahead of federal budget announcement. He said the rally was led by oil and cement sector scrips on expectations of favourable budget announcements. Focus on higher PSDP allocation and oil and gas production in the federal budget, expectation of favourable announcements for capital market investors kept the sentiment positive at KSE despite concerns for rising government borrowing, inflation and lower economic growth indicated in Economic Survey 2010-11 unveiled on Thursday.