A bullish trend continued on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on the back of fresh buying by local and foreign investors. The benchmark KSE-100 index Wednesday surged by 442.88 points to close at highest-ever level of 41,742.75 points.
The index hit 41,961.67 points intra-day high, however it failed to sustain this level due to selling in select stocks at the fag end. Foreign investors entered the market and remained net buyers of shares worth $11.8 million.
Trading activity also improved as the daily trading volumes at the ready counter increased to 695.743 million shares as compared to 506.500 million shares traded Tuesday. The market capitalisation increased by Rs 79 billion to Rs 8.437 trillion. Out of the total 439 scrips, 276 closed in positive, 145 in negative while the value of 18 stocks remained unchanged.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 47.123 million shares, however it lost Rs 0.10 to close at Rs 9.50 followed by Dost Steel (R) that gained Rs 0.08 to close at Rs 3.71 with 30.938 million shares. Summit Bank closed at Rs 3.60, up Rs 0.02 with 30.236 million shares.
Unilever Foods and Rafhan Maize were the top gainers with Rs 268.50 and Rs 237.50, respectively to close at Rs 5,674.00 and Rs 7,650.00. Sanofi-Aventis and Philip Morris Pak were the top losers with Rs 60.87 and Rs 51.62, respectively to close at Rs 1685.57 and Rs 2040.83.
Nabeel Haroon at JS Global Capital said the market continued its positive momentum on the back of settling political tensions, as the index gained 443 points to close at 41,743 points. E&P sector remained under pressure on the back of decline in crude oil prices. Crude oil prices declined for the fourth consecutive day, as news of increase in US stock piles came as a major blow to the already declining crude oil prices. POL and PPL were the major laggards of this sector that closed down 1.53 percent and 0.97 percent respectively. Banking sector continued to garner investors'' interest on the back of higher than expected CPI number for the month of October 2016, which clocked in at 4.21 percent. HBL and MCB were major index movers from this sector and increased by 3.54 percent and 0.74 percent respectively. "We reiterate our bullish stance on the market and recommend investor to see any dips as a buying opportunity", he said.
An analyst at Global Securities said that the market continued with its previous day''s rally and added another 443 points to the KSE-100 index, taking the 2 day gains to 1890 points. Extreme excitement in the market is a direct result of PTI chief, Imran Khan, calling off his party''s protest against PM Nawaz Sharif following Supreme Court''s decision to form a commission to investigate into the Panama Leaks matter. Moreover, HBL and UBL remained the highest contributor towards the index with cumulative contribution of 141points, possibly because of foreign and institutional buying as inflation for the month of October clocked in higher than expected at 4.21 percent, signalling a possible end to the government''s monetary easing stance. Additionally, activity in the auto sector remained buoyant throughout the day as most of the scrips within the sector traded near or at their upper circuits on back of provisional auto sales numbers that circulated the market.