Despite foreign selling, Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday witnessed a bullish trend on the back of healthy buying in various sectors. BRIndex100 gained 80.78 points or 1.86 percent to close at 4,416.93 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,420.21 and intraday low of 4,336.12 points. Volumes stood at 262.126 million shares.
BRIndex30 increased by 486.95 points or 2.16 percent to close at 22,989.33 points with a turnover of 191.416 million shares. The benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 585.45 points or 1.43 percent to close at 41,543.98 points. Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on the ready counter increased to 276.929 million shares as compared to 230.360 million shares traded Tuesday.
Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $2.5 million. The market capitalization increased by Rs 70 billion to Rs 8.260 trillion. Out of total 375 active scrips, 284 closed in positive, only 75 in negative while the value of 16 stocks remained unchanged.
Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 35.034 million shares. It gained Re 0.71 to close at Rs 13.35 followed by Lotte Chemical that increased by Re 0.97 to close at Rs 18.86 with 21.235 million shares.
Wyeth Pak and Lucky Cement were the top gainers with Rs 60.00 and Rs 22.85, respectively to close at Rs 1,260.00 and Rs 494.37. Pak Tobacco and Khyber Tobacco were the top losers with Rs 105.31 and Rs 30.00, respectively to close at Rs 2,194.19 and Rs 570.00.
BR Commercial Banks Index gained 99.16 points or 1.17 percent to close at 8,548.60 points with total turnover of 46.079 million shares.
BR Cement Index increased by 193.2 points or 4.27 percent to close at 4,716.13 points with 40.680 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index inched up by 65.06 points or 1.24 percent to close at 5,303.99 points with 5.101 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index surged by 25.43 points or 2.15 percent to close at 1,210.35 points with 16.012 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index closed at 6,117.19 points, up 40.71 points or 0.67 percent with 7.785 million shares.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that stocks turned bullish on FM affirmations over aversion of imminent balance of payment crisis after Chinese commitments and $6 billion Saudi Arabia bailout package. Trade remained high amid investor interest in scrips across the board on likely implementation of reforms to avert fiscal and external imbalances supporting credit profiles. He said Moody's report on stable outlook for Pakistan, investor speculations amid IMF team visit for bailout talks to deal with economic crises played a catalyst role in bullish close at PSX.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2018

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