RECORDER REPORT
KARACHI: Fresh buying by both local and foreign investors supported the Pakistan Stock Exchange to close on a positive note Monday.
BRIndex100 gained 52.18 points or 1.13 percent to close at 4,669.93 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,677.43 and intraday low of 4,617.10 points. Volumes stood at 90.250 million shares.
BRIndex30 increased by 294.79 points or 1.24 percent to 24,129.42 points with a turnover of 63.577 million shares.
The benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 399.66 points to 43,410.93 points. Trading activity however remained thin as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 109.725 million shares as compared to 139.896 million shares traded Friday.
Foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $1.7 million. The market capitalization increased by Rs 32 billion to Rs 9.021 trillion. Out of total 360 active scrips, 208 closed in positive, 131 in negative while the value of 21 stocks remained unchanged.
Lotte Chemical was the volume leader with 12.757 million shares. It gained Re 0.30 to close at Rs 9.02 followed by Unity Foods that lost Re 0.51 to close at Rs 27.99 with 9.582 million shares. Lucky Cement and Sitara Chemical were the top gainers with Rs 16.13 and Rs 15.97, respectively to close at Rs 649.39 and Rs 335.41. Rafhan Maize and Nestle Pakistan were the top losers with Rs 178.95 and Rs 49.00, respectively to close at Rs 7,800.00 and Rs 12,250.00.
BR Commercial Banks Index gained 40.62 points or 0.47 percent to close at 8,704.81 points with a turnover of 7.124 million shares.
BR Cement Index increased by 134.71 points or 2.32 percent to close at 5,944.96 points with 8.265 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 5,165.08 points, up 58.89 points or 1.15 percent with 3.468 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index inched up by 12.77 points or 1.08 percent to close at 1,190.49 points with 12.435 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index surged by 41.53 points or 0.65 percent to close at 6,382.08 points with 2.728 million shares.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the KSE100 index started on the week on a positive note although volumes were low. Selective buying was on the list of many institutions and the same trend is expected to continue during the week. Healthy activity was observed in cement sector, which saw DGKC and FCCL leading the volumes table in Cement sector. Besides, Banks, Auto and E&P sector saw buying interest which maintained positivity in the market. MCB continued declining trend on the back of foreign selling.
Sectors contributing to upsurge include Cement (up 110 points), E&P (up 80 points), Commercial Banks (up 70 points), Fertilizer (up 47 points) and OGMCs (up 28 points).
Scripts that contributed positively include OGDC (up 45 points), LUCK (up 44 points, UBL (up 34 points), DGKC (up 29 points) and POL (up 27 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include MCB (down 18 points), NESTLE (down 2 points), MUREB (down 2 points), GHGL (down 2 points) and JSCL (down 1 point).
