BRIndex100 takes upswing

Pakistan Stock Exchange Tuesday partially recovered its losses on the back of select buying at attractive low levels.
BRIndex100 gained 25.48 points or 0.58 percent to close at 4,396.70 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,439.13 and intraday low of 4,373.76 points. Volumes stood at 153.042 million shares.
BRIndex30 increased by 164.9 points or 0.76 percent to close at 21,744.86 points with a turnover of 114.881 million shares.
The benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 267.86 points to close at 41,246.09 points. Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on the ready counter increased to 179.771 million shares as compared to 166.648 million shares traded Monday.
Foreign investors were net sellers of shares worth $3.7 million. The market capitalization increased by Rs 73 billion to Rs 8.504 trillion. Out of total 358 active scrips, 189 closed in positive, 139 in negative while the value of 30 stocks remained unchanged.
Power Cement was the volume leader with 31.579 million shares. It gained Re 0.08 to close at Rs 8.39 followed by Bank of Punjab that lost Re 0.03 to close at Rs 12.12 with 15.701 million shares.
Philip Morris Pak and Pak Tobacco were the top gainers with Rs 141.27 and Rs 97.69, respectively to close at Rs 2,966.82 and Rs 2,125.00. Sanofi-Aventis and Bata Pak were the top losers with Rs 55.97 and Rs 30.06, respectively to close at Rs 1,063.43 and Rs 1,869.61.
BR Commercial Banks Index increased by 56.32 points or 0.66 percent to close at 8,583.93 points with total turnover of 33.139 million shares.
BR Cement Index gained 8.48 points or 0.19 percent to close at 4,433.18 points with 44.062 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index surged by 57.96 points or 1.12 percent to close at 5,235.76 points with 7.390 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,118.01 points, up 15.58 points or 1.41 percent with 14.580 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 4.39 points or 0.08 percent to close at 5,805.04 points with 7.349 million shares.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market took an upswing amidst confusion and fear of further selling from mutual funds, which hurt the investor sentiment a day earlier. Banks, Cement, Steel and E&P were favoured by investors after witnessing continuous declines in the previous sessions. Insurance sector''s tab on buying PAEL, ASL and POL kept the interest alive for other investors and these stocks gained well during the trading session. Index went as high as 548 points but due to selling pressure above 41,300 points it ended up 268 points.
Sectors contributing to this increase include Banks (up 57 points), O&GMCs (up 47 points), E&P (up 47 points), Tobacco (up 34 points) and Fertilizer (up 33 points).
Scripts that contributed positively include ENGRO (up 40 points), PPL (up 33 points), PAKT (up 25 points), HMB (up 19 points) and SEARL (up 18 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include KAPCO (down 10 points), DAWH (down 9 points), MCB (down 7 points) and EPCL (down 5 points).