KSE index gains 36 points

Karachi share market, after witnessing a volatile session on Wednesday, finally managed to close in the positive with KSE-100 index gaining 36.06 points to settle at its intra-day high level of 9,315.68 points, analysts said. Trading activity also improved as the ready market volume increased to 21.689 million shares as compared to 11.210 million shares traded on Tuesday.
The futures market turnover surged to 2.379 million shares against 0.858 million shares on the previous day. "Buying activity was witnessed as investors gained confidence following KSE decision to continue floor on share prices and the share buy-back meeting announcements by NBP and OGDC", Ahsan Mehanti at Shehzad Chamdia Securities said. On the other hand, investors' expectations over political stability after president Zardari's oath taking and expectations of favourable economic policies encouraged them to take fresh positions, he added.
The overall market capitalisation increased by Rs 7 billion to Rs 2.908 trillion. Out of the total 185 scrips trading on Wednesday, 69 closed in the positive and 34 closed in the negative while the value of 82 scrips remained unchanged. NBP was the star performer of the day with 4.766 million shares and gained Re. 0.87 to close at Rs 93.89, followed by NIB which increased by Re. 0.19 to close at Rs 8.88 with 1.519 million shares.
PTCL closed at Rs 31.50 without any change with 1.426 million shares. Fresh buying was also witnessed in fertiliser sector as Engro Chemical and Fauji Fertiliser surged by Rs 3.00 and Rs 1.76 to close at Rs 184.00 and Rs 102.06 with 1.060 million shares and 0.642 million shares respectively. UTP-Large Cap declined by Re. 0.40 to close at Rs 5.60 with 1.047 million shares.
Nishat Mills also remained active and gained Rs 1.14 to close at Rs 47.89 with 1.001 million shares. WorldCall Telecom closed at Rs 7.80 without any change with one million shares. Hub Power gained Re. 0.61 to close at Rs 23.16 with 0.883 million shares. OGDC closed at Rs 97.93 without any change with 0.679 million shares.
National Foods and Thal Limited were the highest gainers and gained Rs 17.19 and Rs 5.25 to close at Rs 361.04 and Rs 134.25 respectively while Sapphire Fiber and IGI Insurance were the worst losers and lost Rs 11.00 and Rs 6.81 to close at Rs 214.00 and Rs 167.00 respectively.