BRIndex100 retreats

Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday turned bullish on the back of fresh buying at attractive levels. BRIndex100 gained 23.17 points or 0.53 percent to close at 4,363.97 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,369.48 and intraday low of 4,340.68 points. Volumes stood at 83.912 million shares. BRIndex30 increased by 96.48 points or 0.46 percent 21,293.52 points with a turnover of 57.691 million shares.
The benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 150.52 points to 40,813.31 points. Daily trading volumes increased to 96.709 million shares as compared to 90.373 million shares traded Wednesday.
The market capitalization increased by Rs 26 billion to Rs 8.401 trillion. Out of total 356 active scrips, 166 closed in positive, 160 in negative while the value of 30 stocks remained unchanged.
Azgard Nine was the volume leader with 13.540 million shares. It gained Re 0.33 to close at Rs 15.15 followed by TRG Pak that increased by Rs 0.49 to close at Rs 35.04 with 7.676 million shares.
Colgate Palmolive and Pak Tobacco were the top gainers with Rs 109.00 and Rs 62.00, respectively to close at Rs 2,430.00 and Rs 1,312.00. Unilever Foods and Sapphire Textile were the top losers with Rs 250.00 and Rs 90.24, respectively to close at Rs 6,800.00 and Rs 1,714.72.
BR Commercial Banks Index gained 36.74 points or 0.48 percent to close at 7,756.95 points with total turnover of 6.248 million shares.
BR Cement Index closed at 5,170.09 points, up 11.17 points or 0.22 percent with 6.435 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index inched up by 10.35 points or 0.2 percent to close at 5,170.06 points with 11.815 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,165.73 points, up 0.99 points or 0.08 percent with total turnover of 11.006 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index lost 21.92 points or 0.35 percent to close at 6,262.56 points with 7.801 million shares.
Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said that the market witnessed yet another day of lackluster activity with the KSE-100 Index crawling up 0.4 percent to close at 40,813 level. Most of the dull activity can be attributed to political uncertainty and lack of positive triggers. Some of the major gainers for the day were HBL (up 1.39 percent), POL (up 1.55 percent), ENGRO (up 1.28 percent), PPL (up 1.03 percent) and MLCF (up 4.05 percent) that steered the market upward by 109 points. According to the news, Government is contemplating closing the furnace oil power plants which could potentially dent profitability of the power and OMCs sector going forward. That said, HUBC (down 0.04 percent), KAPCO (down 1.14 percent), PSO (down 0.22 percent) and NPL (down 0.38 percent) all closed in the red zone. E&P sector gained to close higher than its previous day close as crude oil prices recouped over growing expectations that Opec will extend an ongoing production cut agreement. PPL (up 1.03 percent), POL (up 1.55 percent) and OGDC (up 0.50 percent) were the major gainers of the mentioned sector. ENGRO (up 1.28 percent) also recovered after witnessing heavy battering post exclusion from the main MSCI EM index as value buyers jumped in to take advantage of weak price levels.