Index surges 173.73 points

A bullish trend was witnessed on the Karachi share market on Wednesday on the back of local investors and institutions support and the benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 173.73 points to close at 13,937.95 points.
The foreign investors, however, remained net sellers of shares and withdrew $1.71 million from the local equity market. The market opened on a strong positive note and the index hit 13,964.61 points intra-day high.
Trading activities, however, remained slightly low as the volumes at ready counter declined to 261.515 million shares as compared to 268.727 million shares traded on Tuesday. Total market capitalisation increased by Rs 46 billion to Rs 3.575 trillion. Of the total 366 active stocks, 207 closed in positive and 88 in negative, while the value of 71 scrips remained unchanged.
Fauji Cement was the volume leader with 32.019 million shares, however, lost Re 0.01 to close at Rs 7.10. In the other cement sector stocks, Lafarge Pakistan, DG Khan Cement and Dewan Cement gained Re 0.33, Rs 1.89 and Re 0.05 to close at Rs 5.44, Rs 41.41 and Rs 6.10 with 25.368 million shares, 22.558 million shares and 6.215 million shares respectively.
Jahangir Siddiqui Co increased by Re 1.00 to close at Rs 17.84 with 18.546 million shares. Azgard Nine gained Re 1.00 to close at Rs 9.49 with 18.376 million shares.
In the banking sector, NBP, BoP and JS Bank surged by Rs 1.84, Re 0.94 and Re 0.83 to close at Rs 48.32, Rs 9.55 and Rs 6.14 with 12.769 million shares, 11.610 million shares and 9.216 million shares respectively. Nishat Mills increased by Rs 1.85 to close at Rs 58.65 with 7.012 million shares.
Unilever Pak and Nestle Pak were the top gainers increasing by Rs 95.15 and Rs 53.79 to close at Rs 5833.60 and Rs 4379.85 respectively, while Indus Dyeing and Rafhan Maize were the top losers declining by Rs 20.24 and Rs 17.86 to close at Rs 384.61 and Rs 2590.50 respectively. Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that Pakistan stocks closed bullish with investors' interest in stocks across the board in the earnings announcement session at KSE on strong earnings outlook.
He said that the bullish activity in Asian stocks after IMF boosts global growth forecast and higher global commodities played a catalyst role in bullish sentiments despite concerns for delay in implementation of revised CGT regime.
The expectations for resettling of Pak-US ties, hike in local power tariff due to reduce circular debt concerns in the country affected the sentiments, he added.