Index attains new peak

A bullish trend was witnessed on the Karachi share market on Thursday and the benchmark KSE-100 index closed at a historic high and new peak of 15,845.30 points with a net gain of 91.48 points. The market opened on strong positive note and the index for the first time in its history breached 15,900 psychological level to hit highest ever intra-day high of 15,917.09 points.
The local investors remained active and took fresh positions in various stocks while foreign investors also were net buyers of share worth 3.47 million dollars. Trading activities however remained low as the volumes at ready counter declined to 106.902 million shares against 132.835 million shares traded on Wednesday. Total market capitalisation increased by Rs 22 billion to Rs 3.985 trillion. Of the total 351 active stocks, 173 closed in positive and 157 in negative while the value of 21 stocks remained unchanged.
PTCL was the volume leader with 15.960 million shares and gained Re 0.18 to close at Rs 19.98. Engro Foods increased by Rs 1.42 to close at Rs 71.39 with 5.101 million shares. In the banking sector, Askari Bank, Summit Bank, NBP and BoP gained Re 0.19, Re 0.22, Re 0.16 and Re 0.10 to close at Rs 15.86, Rs 3.20, Rs 44.91 and Rs 8.36 with 4.706 million shares, 4.264 million shares, 3.875 million shares and 3.830 million shares respectively. Saritow Spinning increased by Re 0.88 to close at Rs 4.55 with 3.552 million shares.
Engro Corporation decreased by Re 0.22 to close at Rs 102.05 with 3.179 million shares. Nishat (Chunian) inched up by Re 0.19 to close at Rs 26.74 with 2.946 million shares. Hub Power Co gained Re 0.42 to close at Rs 45.89 with 2.874 million shares.
Nestle Pakistan and Colgate Palmolive were the top gainers increasing by Rs 260.00 and Rs 64.50 to close at Rs 5460.00 and Rs 1354.50 respectively while Unilever Pak and National Foods were the top losers declining by Rs 445.00 and Rs 7.52 to close at Rs 9750.00 and Rs 272.74 respectively. Samar Iqbal at Topline Securities said that local bourse once again closed at a historic high of 15,845 points level primarily contributed by OGDC and Nestle Pakistan. However, volumes shrunk by 30 percent to Rs 3.7 billion. On accounts of pre-result rally PTC continued to remain in the limelight amid better earnings anticipation. The renewed buying interest in Engro Foods helped it to gain Rs 1.53 as 5.1 million shares exchanged hands.