BRIndex100 retreats

After negative opening Wednesday, Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) managed to close in positive territory on the back of fresh buying in select stocks. BRIndex100 gained 25.86 points or 0.59 percent to close at 4,420.24 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,425.31 and intraday low of 4,382.76 points. Total volumes stood at 89.516 million shares.
BRIndex30 increased by 163.22 points or 0.77 percent to 21,481.19 points with a turnover of 63.859 million shares.
The benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 209.94 points to 41,259.16 points. Trading activity on the ready counter remained low as daily volumes decreased to 97.376 million shares as compared to 106.587 million shares traded Tuesday.
Foreign investors were net buyers of shares worth $1.532 million. The market capitalization increased by Rs 36 billion to Rs 8.488 trillion. Out of total 378 active scrips, 205 closed in positive, 137 in negative while the value of 36 stocks remained unchanged.
Sui Southern Gas was the volume leader with 8.789 million shares. The increased by Rs 1.12 to close at Rs 35.25 followed by Japan Power that gained Rs 0.22 to close at Rs 1.50 with 7.606 million shares.
Colgate Palmolive and Sanofi-Aventis were the top gainers with Rs 110.00 and Rs 40.03, respectively to close at Rs 2,310.00 and Rs 1,616.70. Khyber Tobacco and Wyeth Pak were the top losers with Rs 58.46 and Rs 41.50, respectively to close at Rs 1,415.49 and Rs 1,598.50.
BR Commercial Banks Index gained 30.77 points or 0.4 percent to close at 7,818.86 points with total volumes of 6.599 million shares. BR Cement Index increased by 64.35 points or 1.25 percent to close at 5,213.23 points with total turnover of 4.966 million shares. BR Oil and Gas Index lost 15.39 points or 0.29 percent to close at 5,256.52 points with 17.791 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,140.43, up 16.41 points or 1.46 percent with 8.934 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index increased by 81.18 points or 1.3 percent to close at 6,321.68 points with 14.376 million shares.
Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said that the bourse opened on a negative note, however value buying helped the index to recover later making intraday high of plus 244 points. KSE-100 index closed 210 points higher at 41,259 level. Given the political uncertainty, volumes declined to 97 million shares. That said, the steel sector flourished as ASTL (up 5 percent), CSAP (up 5 percent) closed at their respective upper circuits and ISL (up 4.69 percent) closed near their upper circuit. SSGC (up 3.28 percent) from the gas utility led the volume charts with more than 8.7 million shares exchanging hands. KEL (up 3.56 percent) from the power sector gained on back of the news that the power division has asked the regulator to reconsider the tariff revision in national interest. A rally was witnessed in the cement sector as heavyweights LUCK (up 2.84 percent), DGKC (up 1.49 percent) and FCCL (up 1.30 percent) closed positively. Auto sector continued its positive trend where HCAR (up 2.39 percent), PSMC (up 3.15 percent) and SAZEW (up 4.29 percent) closed positively on back of expectations of improving auto sales numbers for October 2017.