RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed a positive trend on the first day of new calendar year due to fresh buying in various sectors.

BRIndex100 gained 38.72 points or 0.9 percent to close at 4,333.62 points Monday. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,343.81 and intraday low of 4,259.88 points. Volume stood at 106.142 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 268 points or 1.24 percent to 21,834.45 points with a turnover of 86.453 million shares.

The benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 239.56 points to 40,711.04 points. Trading activity however remained low as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 118.261 million shares as compared to 240.969 million shares traded Friday.

The market capitalization increased by Rs 1.0 billion to Rs 8.571 trillion. Out of total 329 active scrips, 183 closed in positive, 122 in negative while the value of 24 stocks remained unchanged.

TRG Pak was the volume leader with 15.096 million shares. It increased by Rs 1.16 to close at Rs 30.76 followed by Dost Steels that gained Re 0.98 to close at Rs 11.04 with 14.013 million shares.

Rafhan Maize and Bata Pak were the top gainers with Rs 131.00 and Rs 122.61, respectively to close at Rs 6,931.00 and Rs 2,574.88. Pak Tobacco and Abbott Lab were the top losers with Rs 107.38 and Rs 29.59 respectively, to close at Rs 2,040.54 and Rs 668.02.

BR Commercial Banks Index gained 93.92 points or 1.17 percent to close at 8,148.65 points with total turnover of 12.317 million shares.

BR Cement Index inched up by 37.31 points or 0.73 percent to close at 5,137.21 points with 15.222 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 4,985.60 points, up 2.8 points or 0.06 percent with 4.984 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index increased by 24.77 points or 2.31 percent to close at 1,095.08 points with 19.167 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index lost 44.33 points or 0.71 percent to close at 6,175.26 points with 3.046 million shares.

Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 welcomed 2018 on a positive note as the index gained 239 points. The market initially made an intraday low of negative 302 points, however during the second half of the day the index recovered to make an intraday high of up 344 points to close at 40,711. Interest in heavy-weight stocks including HBL (up 4.12 percent), ENGRO (up 2.02 percent), UBL (up 1.11 percent), LUCK (up 1.07 percent) and DGKC (up 1.96 percent) cumulatively contributed plus 186 points to the index.

CPI numbers were announced that clocked in at 4.57 percent on year-on-year for December 2017 against 3.97 percent in November 2017, creating excitement in the banking sector. HBL (up 4.12 percent), BAFL (up 2.31 percent), BAHL (up 3.17 percent) and UBL (up 1.11 percent) closed in the green. In other news, ECC allowed export of 35,000 metric tons of urea to Sri Lanka in addition to extension in the date for export of 41,000 metric tons of urea. Engineering sector gained investors’ interest as DSL (up 9.74 percent) gained to close higher than its previous day close on the back of material information released that the company has conducted successful trial production with start of commercial production likely by the end of January 2018.