KARACHI: Despite foreign selling, Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday witnessed a positive trend and partially recovered overnight losses on the back of fresh buying, mainly by local investors on available attractive low levels.

The KSE-100 Index increased by 229.97 points or 0.50 percent to close at 46,629.88 points. Trading activity however remained low as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 320.334 million shares as compared to 434.690 million shares traded Tuesday.

BRIndex100 gained 34.14 points or 0.71 percent to close at 4,844.95 points. During the session, the BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,862.40 points and intraday low of 4,811.11 points. Total daily volumes stood at 249.852 million shares.

BRIndex30 closed at 21,316.26 points, up 144.74 points or 0.68 percent with total daily turnover of 169.559 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained on selling side and withdrew $2.637 million from local capital market. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 27 billion to Rs 7.960 trillion. Out of total 340 active scrips, 183 closed in positive and 134 in negative while the value of 23 stocks remained unchanged.

F. Nat. Equities was the volume leader with 39.042 million shares however declined by Rs 0.94 to close at Rs 10.10 followed by Service Fabrics that lost Rs 0.70 to close at Rs 11.44 with 30.488 million shares.

Rafhan Maize and Sapphire Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 150.00 and Rs 74.60 respectively to close at Rs 9500.00 and Rs 1155.00 while Sapphire Fiber and Gatron Industries were the top losers declining by Rs 58.00 and Rs 41.85 respectively to close at Rs 719.10 and Rs 516.15.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that stocks showed recovery on FM affirmation on advanced stage negotiation ahead of resumption of IMF program. Midsession pressure remained on foreign outflows and weakening rupee.

He said upbeat data on budget deficit at 0.8 percent of GDP during July-September 2021, strong data on urea fertilizer sales surging by 10 percent for July-October 2021 and ADB approval of $600 million social assistance played a catalyst role in bullish close.

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 14.48 points or 0.17 percent to close at 8,739.86 points with total turnover of 1.978 million shares.

BR Cement Index closed at 6,275.81 points, up 0.85 points or 0.01 percent with 15.148 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index inched up by 0.07 percent and closed at 10,067.26 points with 11.885 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index increased by 37.34 points or 0.69 percent to close at 5,427.08 points with 7.770 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index surged by 51.25 points or 1.34 percent to close at 3,871.73 points with 10.285 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index added 29.72 points or 0.66 percent to close at 4,527.87 points with 69.233 million shares.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021