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

BRIndex100 gained 42.82 points or 1.01 percent to close at 4,277.05 points. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,324.24 and intraday low of 4,234.23 points. Volumes stood at 327.496 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 157.06 points or 0.73 percent to close at 21,718.52 points with a turnover of 188.019 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index surged by 369.01 points or 0.90 percent to cross 41,000 crucial level to close at 41,153.05 points. Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on the ready counter increased to 355.986 million shares as compared to 276.797 million shares traded Monday.

Foreign investors however remained net sellers of shares worth $1.095 million. The market capitalization increased by Rs 49 billion to Rs 7.578 trillion. Out of total 403 active scrips, 204 closed in positive and 176 in negative while the value of 23 stocks remained unchanged.

TRG Pak was the volume leader with 30.914 million shares however declined by Rs 3.08 to close at Rs 54.39 followed by Pak Refinery that gained Rs 0.35 to close at Rs 19.46 with 23.526 million shares. Island Textile and Sapphire Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 86.18 and Rs 73.16 respectively to close at Rs 1235.30 and Rs 1053.42 while Unilever Foods and Rafhan Maize were the top losers declining by Rs 353.48 and Rs 173.00 respectively to close at Rs 12500.00 and Rs 8525.00.

BR Automobile Assembler Index closed at 7,927.47, down0.93 points or 0.01 percent with total turnover of 2.928 million shares.

BR Cement Index inched up by 3.53 points or 0.06 percent to close at 6,063.93 points with 36.965 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index increased by 118.06 points or 1.41 percent to close at 8,472.26 points with 25.048 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index gained 8.13 points or 0.16 percent to close at 4,967.33 points with 9.563 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index surged by 116.44 points or 3.14 percent to close at 3,825.52 points with 36.379 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index decreased by 37.48 points or 1.95 percent to close at 1,882.78 points with 41.848 million shares.

Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said recovery was witnessed at the PSX as investors reacted to positive developments overnight on the coronavirus vaccine front. The market made an intraday high of plus 813 points to close at 41,153 level, up 369 points.

Pharmaceutical sector gained to close in the green zone on the back of vaccine hopes. GLAXO (up 3.1 percent), FEROZ (up 0.6 percent) and AGP (up 0.7 percent) were the major gainers of the mentioned sector.

Banking scrips closed higher where UBL (up 5.3 percent), MCB (up 1.1 percent), and HBL (up 0.3 percent) were the major movers of the mentioned sector. PPL (up 4.8 percent), OGDC (up 4.0 percent) and POL (up 4.9 percent) were the major movers from the E&P sector as crude oil prices recovered in the international market. From the steel sector ISL (up 2.2 percent) and ASL (up 0.9 percent) both increased the prices of CRC and HDGC.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020