BRIndex100 consolidates gains

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: A positive trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday on the back of healthy buying, mainly by local investors.

BRIndex100 gained 61.39 points or 1.49 percent to close at 4,184.93 points. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,195.09 and intraday low of 4,123.38 points. Volumes stood at 455.106 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 459.98 points or 2.21 percent to close at 21,236.04 points with a turnover of 344.876 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index surged by 503.66 points or 1.26 percent and closed above 40,000 crucial level at 40,353.62 points. Trading activities also improved as daily volumes on ready counter increased to 476.869 million shares as compared to 431.962 million shares traded on Wednesday.

Foreign investors however remained net sellers of equities worth $534.154. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 80 billion to Rs 7.549 trillion. Out of total 411 active scrips, 240 closed in positive and 155 in negative while the value of 16 stocks remained unchanged.

Hascol Petroleum was the volume leader with 107.778 million shares and gained Rs 0.76 to close at Rs 17.58 followed by Unity Foods that inched up by Rs 0.73 to close at Rs 16.59 with 56.315 million shares. Nestle Pakistan and Bhanero Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 82.50 and Rs 57.93 respectively to close at Rs 6600.00 and Rs 830.43 while Island Textile and Hinopak Motor were the top losers declining by Rs 73.33 and Rs 12.03 respectively to close at Rs 916.00 and Rs 470.33.

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 1.54 points or 0.02 percent to close at 7,355.26 points with total turnover of 3.923 million shares.

BR Cement Index surged by 111.61 points or 1.95 percent to close at 5,825.49 points with 60.392 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index inched up by 59.77 points or 0.73 percent to close at 8,221.46 points with 46.442 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index gained 44.63 points or 0.95 percent to close at 4,731.95 points with 20.259 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index increased by 112.68 points or 2.95 percent to close at 3,928.95 points with 123.095 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,724.49 points, up 27.58 points or 1.63 percent with 29.781 million shares.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market continued the momentum picked in the last trading session and added a total of 562 points during the session, closing the session up 504 points.

E&P, O&GMCs, Banks and Cement sector stocks contributed to the buying activity on the back of upcoming earnings season. HASCOL’s financial results saw the stock rebound from trading below LDCP to trading near upper circuit post announcement of financial results.

Among Banks, BOP continued seeing negative impact of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) direction given by SBP on Wednesday and the stock saw negative closing from LDCP.

Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (up 123 points), Cement (up 82 points), O&GMCs (up 73 points), Banks (up 70 points) and up 68 points).

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include OGDC (up 62 points), PSO (up 46 points), PPL (up 33 points), POL (up 29 points) and HBL (up 28 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include BAHL (down 20 points), BAFL (down 6 points), THALL (down 5 points), PSX (down 5 points) and DGKC (down 5 points).