The stock market closed higher Tuesday and the benchmark KSE-100 index gained 68.20 points to close at 29,540.72 points against 29,472.52 points Monday. During the intraday trading, the index touched 29,641.33 points highest and 29,433.26 points lowest levels. The trading side witnessed an upward trend and the volume at the ready counter surged to 232.402 million shares from 133 million shares. The market capitalisation increased by Rs 5 billion to Rs 6.86 trillion.
Analyst Samar Iqbal of Topline Securities said selective stock picking by financial institutions helped the market to stage recovery. Institutional interest in KEL and NBP helped post gains with healthy volumes. Cement stocks also remained in the limelight with LUCK closing at upper circuit limit. Some profit-taking was seen in UBL ahead of its book building today, she added.
KEL led the volume with 33 million shares, gaining Re0.59, followed by FCCL with 16 million shares, Re0.39 up and SNGP with 14 million shares, rising by Rs 1.04. Trading took place in 363 scrips, of which positive growth was witnessed in 167, some 165 closed with minus signs and that of 31 stayed unchanged. K-Electric emerged as volume leader with 32.5 million shares, up Re 0.59 to close at Rs 8.86. Fauji Cement stood second moving up by Re 0.39 to close at Rs 20.72 on 15.88 million shares. Sui North Gas closed at Rs 24.04, up by Rs 1.04 on 15 million shares.
National Bank surged by Re 0.71 to close at Rs 59.21 on 12.88 million shares. Sui South Gas gained Re 0.61 to close at Rs 33.90 on 11.25 million shares. Jah. Sidd. Co witnessed a gain of Re 0.17 to close at Rs 11.28 on 9.7 million shares. Pak Int Bulk closed at Rs 11.76, up by Rs 1 on 9.3 million shares. Lotte Chemical moved up by Re 0.40 to close at Rs 7.70 on 7.1 million shares. Lafarge Pakistan closed at Rs 14.60, up Re 0.19 on 6.2 million shares. TRG Pakistan increased by Re 0.27 to close at Rs 15.38 on 5 million shares.
Wyeth Pak Ltd and Pak Tobacco were the top gainers with Rs 124.00 and Rs 46.50 to close at Rs 4,349.99 and Rs 1,336.50, respectively. Nestle Pak and Siemens Pakistan were the top losers with Rs 202.38 and Rs 47.00 to close at Rs 8,127.00 and Rs 1,353.00, respectively. Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp said stocks closed higher amid higher trades led by select stocks across the board on strong valuations.
He said rising local cement dispatches over 3 million tons in May 14, MARI new market based gas pricing approval, renewed foreign interest in oil stocks and improved urea offtake data for May'14 played a catalyst role in positive close at KSE despite concerns for terror attacks in the country. Mujtaba Barakzai of JS said the market closed in the green zone with total turnover of 232 million shares. KSE 100 delved into negative territory, during the day, reacting to the law and order conditions.
Amongst stocks, NBP with good outlook on valuations was up 1.2 percent, PSO on the basis of technical strength went up 1.4 percent, LUCK with the allocation of required funds for various projects hit the upper circuit breaker during the day and closed up 4.0 percent while and PTC on the news of transfer of properties to Etisalat climbed by 0.6 percent, he added.