Index gains 60.7 points

A bullish trend continued on the Karachi share market on Tuesday and the KSE-100 index gained another 60.7 points to close at 14,445.28 points. Although the index briefly visited negative zone at 14,373.66 points intra-day high level, however reviving investors' interest supported the index to recover its intra-day losses and to hit 14,485.44 points intra-day high level.
Foreign investors support continued and they remained net buyers of shares worth dollars 1.65 million.
Trading activities also improved as the volumes at ready counter increased to 105.343 million shares as compared to 73.852 million shares traded on Monday. Total market capitalisation increased by Rs 14 billion to Rs 3.685 trillion. Of the total 371 active stocks, 166 closed in positive and 106 in negative while the value of 99 stocks remained unchanged.
Jahangir Siddiqui Co was the volume leader with 13.496 million shares and gained Re 0.63 to close at Rs 14.66.
Investors interest was seen in the cement sector, as DG Khan Cement, Lucky Cement and Lafarge Pakistan increased by Re 0.28, Rs 1.71 and Re 0.06 to close at Rs 44.92, Rs 128.34 and Rs 4.67 with 12.813 million shares, 4.071 million shares and 1.806 million shares respectively. Lotte Pakistan PTA inched up by Re 0.39 to close at Rs 7.56 with 8.726 million shares.
Engro Foods declined by Rs 2.16 to close at Rs 67.66 with 8.036 million shares.
Fresh buying was also seen in the banking sector, as Askari Bank, NBP, NIB Bank and UBL surged by Re 0.66, Re 0.44, Re 0.02 and Rs 1.73 to close at Rs 15.00, Rs 45.42, Rs 2.40 and Rs 88.89 with 3.609 million shares, 3.132 million shares, 2.798 million shares and 2.285 million shares respectively.
Unilever Pak and Bata (Pak) Limited were the top gainers increasing by Rs 34.52 and Rs 24.27 to close at Rs 7,156 and Rs 674.39 respectively, while Unilever Food and Colgate Palmolive were the top losers declining by Rs 114.72 and Rs 59.7 to close at Rs 2752.5 and Rs 1135.3 respectively.
"With the commencement of the results season, investors started taking position in anticipation of healthy earnings and handsome payouts", Samara Iqbal at Topline Securities said.
The volumes rose to Rs4billion led by JSCL followed by DGKC and LOTPTA. Profit taking was seen in Engro Foods after its half yearly earnings announcement.