Index gains 97.29 points

Healthy buying was witnessed at Karachi share market on Wednesday and the KSE-100 index surged by 97.29 points to close at 9,507.95 points. "The federal and four provincial governments for distribution of national resources and signing of seventh NFC Award encouraged the investors to take fresh positions on the second last session of the year 2009", analysts said, and added that expectations over good financial results also attracted fresh buying at the local bourses.
The market opened on a positive note and the index hit 9,561.34 points intra-day high, up 150.68 points. However, profit taking in some select stocks in late hours minimised the gains. Trading also improved significantly and the volume at ready counter rose to 145.252 million shares as compared to 50.339 million shares traded on Tuesday. Market capitalisation increased by Rs 26 billion to Rs 2.737 trillion.
Of 400 active scrips, 232 closed in positive and 148 in negative, while the value of 20 scrips remained unchanged. Pak PTA was the volume leader with 21.369 million shares and gained Re. 0.40 to close at Rs 8.00. Bank Al Falah lost Re. 0.13 to close at Rs 14.05 with 13.531 million shares. Arif Habib Sec surged by Rs 1.51 to close at Rs 49.54 with 9.152 million shares. Nishat (Chunian) increased by Re. 0.38 to close at Rs 20.71 with 8.691 million shares. DG Khan Cement gained Rs 1.35 to close at Rs 31.94 with 7.630 million shares.
Engro Chemical surged by Rs 3.21 to close at Rs 186.84 with 7.202 million shares. Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim lost Re. 0.10 to close at Rs 26.39 with 3.790 million shares. OGDC and POL increased by Rs 1.52 and Rs 2.41 to close at Rs 113.34 and Rs 232.33 with 6.591 million shares and 3.474 million shares respectively. Jahangir Siddiqui Co gained Re. 0.46 to close at Rs 30.52 with 5.159 million shares.
Siemens Pak and Nestle Pak were the highest gainers and increased by Rs 18.63 and Rs 14.00 to close at Rs 1243.44 and Rs 1204.00 respectively, while Unilever Food and Fazal Textile were the worst losers and declined by Rs 15.00 and Rs 6.75 to close at Rs 1300.00 and Rs 423.00 respectively.
Hamad Aslam, Head of Research at BMA Capital Management said that healthy buying was witnessed at the local share market mainly in E&P, fertiliser and banking sector stocks. He said that the consensus among federal and all four provinces over the distribution of national resources and signing of NFC Award was also a positive sentiment, which encouraged the investors to take fresh position. It was a historic occasion when the federal government and all the four provinces agreed on the distribution of national resources, he added.