Bullish trend continued on Karachi Stock Exchange on the fourth consecutive day on the back of good corporate results, improving economic indicators and political situation in the country and the benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 175.00 points to close at 6,441.00 points level on Thursday.
The market opened on a positive note and the index hit 6,460.17 points intra-day high level. However, some profit taking in some select stocks slightly minimised the intra-day gains. The strong interest of retail investors and institutions was evident as a significant increase was witnessed in the daily trading volumes. The volumes at ready country increased to 276.790 million shares as compared to 233.757 million shares traded on Wednesday.
The overall market capitalisation increased by Rs 47 billion to Rs 1.946 trillion. Out of the total 386 active scrips, 199 closed in negative and 176 in positive while the value of 11 scrips remained unchanged. NIB was the volume leader of the day with 36.903 million shares and gained Re. 0.26 to close at Rs 5.75. OGDC increased by Rs 2.95 to close at Rs 66.15 with 18.930 million shares.
PTCL lost Re 0.07 to close at Rs 16.15 with 18.800 million shares. Pak PTA gained Re 0.22 to close at Rs 2.61 with 15.122 million shares. Nishat Mills increased by Re 0.99 to close at Rs 29.26 with 14.905 million shares. Bank Al Falah surged by Re 1.00 to close at Rs 14.89 with 12.107 million shares.
Jahangir Siddiqui Co increased by Re 0.83 to close at Rs 28.12 with 11.051 million shares. DG Khan Cement gained Re 1.00 to close at Rs 20.75 with 9.359 million shares. PPL surged by Rs 8.01 to close at Rs 168.22 with 8.872 million shares. Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim lost Re 0.47 to close at Rs 16.91 with 8.374 million shares.
Nestle Pakistan and Unilever Pakistan were the highest gainers and gained Rs 27.00 and Rs 14.52 to close at Rs 1068.00 and Rs 1905.11 respectively. While Wyeth Pakistan and Fazal Textile were the worst losers and lost Rs 70.24 and Rs 27.11 to close at Rs 1334.74 and Rs 515.28 respectively.
Hasnain Asghar Ali at Aziz Fidahusein Co said that market witnessed some profit taking in early hours. Geared up market men along with the corporate participants well resisted the float as the news of surplus current account balance and budgetary support of 200 million euros assured by EU, financial assistance of $700 million from ADB and WB, and doubling of assistance by the US kept the sentiment high.
He said that the materialisation of commitment will not only strengthen the reserve but will also support in stabilisation the local currency. Sector and stock swapping however, kept the benchmark stagnant for a while constant accumulation however, allowed bulls to take the dominating position.