KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday remained bullish and saw over 15-year high trading volume on the back of aggressive buying, mainly by local investors and institutions.
BRIndex100 gained 40.14 points or 0.92 percent to close at 4,395.20 points. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,401.33 and intraday low of 4,372.84 points. Volumes stood at 825.123 million shares.
BRIndex30 increased by 243.63 points or 1.08 points to close at 22,888.52 points with a turnover of 505.948 million shares.
The KSE-100 Index surged by 353.26 points or 0.84 percent and crossed another psychological level of 42,000 to close at 42,188.11 points. The market witnessed tremendous trading activities as daily volumes on ready counter increased to 15.5 year highest level of 919.471 million shares as compared to 837.022 million shares traded Wednesday.
Foreign investors however remained net sellers of shares worth $1.777 million. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 81 billion to Rs 7.865 trillion. Out of total 439 active scrips, 322 closed in positive and only 97 in negative while the value of 20 stocks remained unchanged.
Unity Foods was the volume leader with 51.414 million shares and gained Rs 0.69 to close at Rs 15.73 followed by Bank of Punjab that inched up by Rs 0.39 to close at Rs 10.08 with 49.764 million shares. Unilever Foods and Philip Morris Pak were the top gainers increasing by Rs 846.00 and Rs 73.89 respectively to close at Rs 12,133.00 and Rs 1775.00 while Premier Sugar and Ismail Industries were the top losers declining by Rs 26.93 and Rs 25.68 respectively to close at Rs 572.00 and Rs 339.01.
BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 14.78 points or 0.18 percent to close at 8,035.48 points with total turnover of 8.348 million shares.
BR Cement Index surged by 137.64 points or 2.38 percent to close at 5,921.80 points with 112.065 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index inched up by 54.13 points or 0.64 percent to close at 8,477.91 points with 123.923 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index lost 43.66 points or 0.83 percent to close at 5,248.29 points with 52.619 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 4,251.21 points, up 22.82 points or 0.54 percent with 72.333 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index increased by 49.84 points or 2.64 percent to close at 1,934.48 points with 93.491 million shares.
"After posting one the recent high volumes on the bourse with 837 million shares, the market stepped up to clinch 917 million on Thursday, yet another high," an analyst at Arif Habib Limited said.
He said investor sentiment has been sky high in recent times, especially on the expectation of an announcement by Prime Minister on his scheduled visit to Karachi on Friday.
Infrastructure development is expected to positively impact construction sector scrips, which prompted Investors to take interest in Cement and Steel sectors. MLCF and PIOC also hit upper circuits on the notification of substantial shareholding by sponsors.
Among banking sector stocks, NBP continued the uptrend after posting an outstanding result on Wednesday. Banking sector stocks topped the volumes with 123.8 million shares, followed by Cement (112 million shares) and Technology (93.3 million shares). Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (up 89 points), Banks (up 51 points), O&GMCs (up 44 points), Textile (up 41 points) and Fertilizer (up 35 points).
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include MLCF (up 31 points), SYS (up 29 points), KTML (up 22 points), NBP (up 21 points) and PIOC (up 19 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HUBC (down 25 points), BAHL (down 13 points), POL (down 8 points), OGDC (down 6 points) and DAWH (down 5 points).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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