Volumes hit 11-year high

Pakistan Stock Exchange Friday recovered 147.33 points or 0.37 percent on the back of fresh buying by local investors. The KSE-100 index closed at a new high of 40,363.68 points. Interestingly, a heavy trading activity was seen on the last trading session as the daily trading volumes rose to 11-year high at 850.500 million shares as compared to 531.161 million shares traded on Thursday.
The market capitalisation increased by Rs 31 billion to Rs 8.122 trillion. Out of the total 430 shares traded, 285 closed in positive, 129 in negative while that of 16 remained unchanged. WorldCall Telecom was the top volume leader with 114.892 million shares. It increased by Rs 0.76 to close at Rs 2.83 followed by Bank of Punjab with 69.513 million shares. It increased by Rs 0.97 to close at Rs 12.28. NIB Bank increased by Rs 0.27 to close at Rs 2.23 with 58.149 million shares.
Indus Motor Co and Hinopak Motor were the top gainers with Rs 62.96 and Rs 53.12, respectively to close at Rs 1322.31 and Rs 1115.54. Unilever Foods and Island Textile were the top losers with Rs 150.00 and Rs 35.64, respectively to close at Rs 5100.00 and Rs 1279.91.
Hammad Aman of Topline Securities said a healthy activity was seen at the PSX as the daily trading volumes increased to record 11-year high, mainly due to activity in the side stocks. Highest volume was recorded after February 23, 2005 when 1,086 million shares were traded. From Thursday, volumes increased by 60 percent to 850 million shares while value rose by 45 percent to Rs 16.6 billion or $159 million. WTL led the volumes with over 114 million shares. The stock gained 50 percent since a public announcement was made at the PSX by World Call Services and Ferret Consulting. Upbeat in sales figures renewed investor interest in auto stocks which led Indus Motor, Millat Tractor, Hinopak Motor and Honda Cars to close at their upper limits of 5 percent.
Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said stocks closed all-time high amid record trades led by autos, cement and telecom scrips on strong earnings outlook. Trade remained high in second- and third-tier stocks on strong valuations. Subdued political noise, Forbes reports on MSCI Pakistan ETF outperformance in last 12-months and upbeat sales data in the cement, fertilisers and oil sector for August 2016 played a catalytic role in the bullish close, he added.