KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange welcomed the New Year on strong positive note and closed higher on the back of healthy buying by local and foreign investors Friday.

BRIndex100 gained 87.59 points or 1.9 percent to close at 4,697.65 points. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,746.45 and an intraday low of 4,610.06 points. Volumes stood at 560.050 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 660.13 points or 2.84 percent to close at 23,909.18 points with a turnover of 326.650 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index surged by 679.42 points or 1.55 percent to close above 44,000 level at 44,434.80 points. Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on the ready counter increased to 642.622 million shares as compared to 578.250 million shares traded on Thursday.

Foreign investors also remained net buyers of shares worth $477,919. The market capitalization increased by Rs 97 billion to Rs 8.132 trillion. Out of total 406 active scrips, 214 closed in positive and 178 in negative while the value of 14 stocks remained unchanged.

Power Cement was the volume leader with 35.837 million shares and gained Rs 0.32 to close at Rs 10.20 followed by Hascol Petroleum that inched up by Rs 0.40 to close at Rs 15.09 with 35.483 million shares. Unilever Foods and Colgate Palmolive were the top gainers increasing by Rs 500.00 and Rs 80.00 respectively to close at Rs 14500.00 and Rs 2980.00 while Nestle Pakistan and Bata Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 37.51 and Rs 21.31 respectively to close at Rs 6627.50 and Rs 1510.53.

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 21.93 points or 0.25 percent to close at 8,678.81 points with total turnover of 3.880 million shares.

BR Cement Index closed at 6,310.63 points, down 0.43 points or 0.01 percent with 90.371 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index increased by 105.07 points or 1.18 percent to close at 8,997.30 points with 41.369 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index surged by 338.68 points or 6.7 percent to close at 5,396.66 points with 63.033 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index added 204.84 points or 5.15 percent to close at 4,179.80 points with 85.455 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index decreased by 30.85 points or 1.13 percent to close at 2,698.55 points with 47.777 million shares.

“As astonishing as real fireworks are, the PSX KSE-100 Index made a display of its own to welcome the New Year,” Danish Ladhani at JS Global Capital said. The index rallied immensely and touched a high of plus 1,119 points, before closing positive (up by 679 points) at 44,435.

Cement sector picked up some pace as Prime Minister announced that the fixed tax regime for the construction sector introduced earlier had been extended to December 31, 2021. Consequently, POWER (up 3.2 percent), MLCF (down 1.5 percent), FCCL (down 0.7 percent) and DGKC (up 0.2 percent) gained to close in the green trajectory.

Word on the street suggest some positive outcomes on the circular debt matter which contributed towards the sector's performance as HUBC (up 7.5 percent), KAPCO (up 7.5 percent), NPL (up 7.5 percent), LPL (up 7.8 percent) and PKGP (up 7.5 percent) closed at their respective upper circuits.

Furthermore, E&Ps witnessed positivity through the day as OGDC (up 6.1 percent), PPL (up 7.5 percent) and POL (up 2.0 percent) closed in the green zone.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021