Index briefly crosses 10,600 points

The KSE-100 index on Friday closed at the highest level after August 2008 at 10,586.46 points, gaining 52.89 points, on the back of foreign buying coupled with strong interest of local institutions mainly in oil, telecom and banking sector stocks. After opening on a positive note the index breached 10,600 points level.
However, it could not sustain it due to profit taking in late hours in some select stocks. Trading volume increased slightly to 247.673 million shares as compared to 245.291 million shares recorded on Thursday. Market capitalisation increased by Rs 13 billion to Rs 2.993 trillion. Of 395 active scrips, 197 closed in negative and 186 in positive, while the value of 12 scrips remained unchanged.
Lotte Pakistan was the volume leader with 22.342 million shares. However, it lost Re 0.21 to close at Rs 12.59. SilkBank gained Re 0.03 to close at Rs 3.92 with 20.006 million shares. Azgard Nine increased by Re 1.00 to close at Rs 14.06 with 19.697 million shares. PTCL closed at Rs 22.29, up Re 0.53 with 15.488 million shares.
TRG Pakistan gained Re 0.15 to close at Rs 4.65 with 15.282 million shares. Jahangir Siddiqui Co increased by Re 0.69 to close at Rs 22.70 with 13.813 million shares. Arif Habib Sec surged by Rs 1.28 to close at Rs 49.24 with 11.014 million shares. WorldCall Telecom inched up by Re 0.12 to close at Rs 4.84 with 7.823 million shares.
POL surged by Rs 4.71 to Rs 248.06 with 7.285 million shares. Byco Petroleum increased by Re 0.43 to Rs 13.54 with 7.113 million shares. Unilever Pakistan and Nestle Pak were the highest gainers and increased by Rs 167.52 and Rs 68.46 to close at Rs 3517.94 and Rs 1437.77 respectively, while Siemens Pak and Rafhan Maize were the worst losers and declined by Rs 12.95 and Rs 9.00 to close at Rs 1260.04 and Rs 1370.00 respectively.
Ahsan Mehanti at Shehzad Chamdia Securities said that bullish activity continued in oil and gas, telecom and banking scrips ahead of quarter-end result announcements. The continuing foreign interest, strong rupee value, expectation of early release of $1.2 billion IMF tranche for Pakistan played a catalyst role in positive activity at the local bourse, he added.