The share market witnessed another bullish session on Wednesday on the back of foreign interest, coupled with local retail investors' support as the KSE-100 index surged by 101.39 points to close at 14,137.83 points level. The KSE-30 index gained 83.03 points to close at 16,949.08 points' level.
The market witnessed healthy trading activity as the ready market volume increased to 273.900 million shares as compared to 195.087 million shares traded a day earlier. The futures market turnover, however, declined to 29.770 million shares against 36.623 million shares previously.
The overall market capitalisation surged by Rs 32 billion to Rs 4.367 trillion. Trading took place in 399 scrips, out of which 225 scrips closed in positive and 130 scrips in negative, while the value of 44 scrips remained unchanged.
JS Bank was the overall market volume leader with 24.516 million shares, and the scrip closed at the same level of Rs 20 without any change. Bank of Punjab (BoP) and Bank Al Falah increased by Rs 3.75 and Rs 1.30 to close at Rs 101.95 and Rs 55.70 respectively.
Arif Habib Sec performed well and gained Rs 5.45 to close at Rs 173.40 with a total volume of 21.742 million shares. The Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) increased by Rs 0.05 to close at Rs 122.35. In cement sector, Lucky Cement declined by Rs 0.85 to close at Rs 122.75, while Al-Abbas Cement gained rupee one to close at Rs 16.45.
While JOV & Co also remained active and surged by Rs 6.40 to close at Rs 162.80, Pervez Ahmed gained Rs 1.25 to close at Rs 35.75 and Unity Mod increased by Rs 0.85 to close at Rs 2.40. Wyeth Pakistan and Siemens were the highest gainers, with Rs 100 and Rs 36 gains to close at Rs 2,250 and Rs 1,750 respectively, while Pak Engineering and Grays of Cambridge were the highest losers. They lost Rs 10.45 and Rs 10 to close at Rs 288 and Rs 215 respectively.
Ahsan Mehanti at Shehzad Chamdia Securities said that the market performed well on the back of foreign and local retail investors' interest, witnessing mainly in E& P, fertilisers and banking sector stocks.
The 15 percent GST exemption on crude import invited fresh buying in oil marketing companies, he said, adding special cash reserve (SCR) requirements slashed to five percent also invited fresh interest in the banking sector stocks, while the increase in cement prices by rupees five per bag also invited fresh buying in the relevant stocks.