KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday witnessed a bullish trend on the back of healthy buying, mainly by local investors and institutions.

BRIndex100 gained 69.67 points or 1.59 percent to close at 4,445.19 points. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,483.24 and intraday low of 4,403.72 points. Volumes stood at 748.752 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 404.72 points or 1.8 percent to close at 22,873.83 points with a turnover of 468.839 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index surged by 625.10 points or 1.49 percent and closed at 42,647.35 points. Trading activities also improved as daily volumes on ready counter increased to 884.962 million shares as compared to 707.013 million shares traded on Wednesday.

Foreign investors however remained net sellers of shares worth $188,834. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 133 billion to Rs 8.009 trillion. Out of total 448 active scrips, 284 closed in positive and 147 in negative while the value of 17 stocks remained unchanged.

Pak Int. Bulk Terminal was the volume leader with 122.049 million shares and gained Rs 0.56 to close at Rs 13.70 followed by Hascol Petroleum that inched up by Rs 0.05 to close at Rs 21.21 with 48.103 million shares. Unilever Foods and Nestle Pakistan were the top gainers increasing by Rs 400.00 and Rs 394.00 respectively to close at Rs 12,900.00 and Rs 6976.00 while Atlas Honda Limited and Bhanero Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 27.00 and Rs 18.31 respectively to close at Rs 422.00 and Rs 990.00.

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 19.09 points or 0.24 percent to close at 7,948.12 points with total turnover of 10.021 million shares.

BR Cement Index increased by 127.36 points or 2.14 percent to close at 6,082.07 points with 71.067 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index surged by 155.38 points or 1.85 percent to close at 8,562.96 points with 76.667 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index closed at 5,173.11 points, up 104.42 points or 2.06 percent with 50.558 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index inched up by 73.46 points or 1.77 percent to close at 4,230.77 points with 76.136 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index lost 31.18 points or 1.51 percent to close at 2,033.37 points with 138.984 million shares.

"Boisterous activity was witnessed at the bourse in response to the Roshan Digital Account for Non-Resident Pakistanis (NRP) that would facilitate investment by Pakistani diaspora in Pakistan Stock Exchange listed shares as well as government issued securities", an analyst at Arif Habib Limited said.

Activity was seen across the board but was more pronounced in O&GMCs, E&P and Banking sectors. PSO traded near upper circuit, whereas OGDC, PPL and POL also responded positively to the uptick in international crude oil prices overnight.

Fertilizer sector also showed positivity as High Court granted stay on GIDC collection. Technology sector realized trading volume of 138.8 million shares, followed by Transport (126.6 million shares) and Banks (76.6 million shares).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (up 176 points), Cement (up 85 points), E&P (up 85 points), Fertilizer (up 64 points) and Power (up 57 points).

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include MCB (up 65 points), LUCK (up 62 points), HUBC (up 53 points), PPL (up 49 points) and PSO (up 37 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include TRG (down 13 points), SYS (down 12 points), NATF (down 9 points), ATLH (down 8 points) and BAHL (down 4 points).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020