A bullish trend continued on the Karachi share market for the fourth consecutive day on the back of local investors and institutional support and the KSE-100 index gained 30.00 points to close at 12,198.12 points. Expectations regarding some supportive measures in the upcoming federal budget invited investors' interest on the fourth consecutive day and after positive opening the index breached 12,200 psychological level to hit 12,259.29 points intra-day high, up 91.17 points.
However, profit taking in some stocks minimised the intra-day gains. Trading activities, however reduced, as the volumes at ready counter stood at 101.515 million shares, as compared to 122.922 million shares traded on Wednesday. Total market capitalisation increased by Rs 9 billion to Rs 3.234 trillion. Out of the total 355 active scrips, 185 closed in positive and 91 in negative, while the value of 79 stocks remained unchanged.
BoP was the volume leader with 10.436 million shares and gained Re 0.45 to close at Rs 6.60. In the other banking sector stocks, Bank Al Falah lost Re 0.14 to close at Rs 10.67 with 3.859 million shares, while NIB Bank and NBP increased by Re 0.05 and Re 0.97 to close at Rs 1.76 and Rs 53.97 with 3.403 million shares and 3.111 million shares, respectively.
Jahangir Siddiqui Co inched up by Re 0.03 to close at Rs 8.15 with 7.032 million shares. Byco Petroleum gained Re 0.27 to close at Rs 9.47 with 4.755 million shares. Lotte Pakistan PTA lost Re 0.08 to close at Rs 15.20 with 4.531 million shares. Nishat Chunian Power inched up by Re 0.21 to close at Rs 17.13 with 4.330 million shares. Azgard Nine closed at the same level of Rs 6.58 with 4.011 million shares. DG Khan Cement increased by Re 0.59 to close at Rs 23.45 with 3.472 million shares.
Nestle Pakistan and Bata (Pak) were the highest gainers increasing by Rs 38.51 and Rs 24.31 to close at Rs 3549.70 and Rs 510.67, respectively while Unilever Pak and Sanofi-Aventis were the worst losers declining by Rs 66.02 and Rs 5.93 to close at Rs 5100.98 and Rs 145.06, respectively.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Investments said that positive trend continued at the local share market on renewed institutional interest. He said rising local power tariff, higher oil refinery margins and recovery in global commodity prices affected the market sentiment. He said that recovery in global capital markets, expectations on favourable federal budget announcements for listed corporate sector and British PM comments on Pak-UK relations played a catalyst role in positive close at the KSE.