The benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 117.04 points to close at 7,198.87 points level on Wednesday on the back of fresh buying by retail investors and local institutions, mainly in banking and cement sector stocks. The SECP decision regarding revival of Consultation Group on capital markets fuelled the bulls, while expectations over the introduction of a leverage product revived the investors'' interest to take fresh positions on attractive levels, analysts said.
The market opened in the positive zone and the index hit 7,274.86 points intra-day high level, up by 193.03 points. However, profit taking in some select stocks minimised the intra-day gains and the index closed 75.99 points lower from its high level. Trading activities significantly improved as the volumes at ready counter increased by 46.5 percent to 142.021 million shares as compared to 96.921 million shares traded a day earlier.
The overall market capitalisation increased by Rs 34 billion to Rs 2.143 trillion. Out of the total 344 active stocks, 230 closed in the positive and 99 in the negative while the value of 15 stocks remained unchanged. Jahangir Siddiqui Co was the volume leader with 19.113 million shares and gained Re. 0.40 to close at Rs 27.37.
Fresh buying was witnessed in the banking sector, as NBP, Bank Al Falah and MCB Bank increased by Rs 3.41, Re. 0.44 and Rs 4.46 to close at Rs 75.70, Rs 11.66 and Rs 166.29 with 11.347 million shares, 5.967 million shares and 3.828 million shares respectively.
A mixed trend was seen in the E&P sector, as OGDC lost Re. 0.19 to close at Rs 74.26 with 8.430 million shares while PPL gained Rs 1.20 to close at Rs 172.28 with 4.617 million shares. Investors'' interest was seen in the cement sector, as Lucky Cement and DG Khan Cement surged by Rs 2.50 and Rs 1.10 to close at Rs 57.85 and Rs 23.29 with 5.550 million shares and 3.488 million shares respectively. PTCL increased by Re. 0.83 to close at Rs 17.41 with 4.064 million shares. Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim gained Re. 0.31 to close at Rs 18.25 with 3.756 million shares.
Siemens Pakistan and Colgate Palmolive were the highest gainers and gained Rs 19.75 and Rs 11.50 to close at Rs 859.00 and Rs 306.50 respectively while Unilever Pakistan and Service Industries were the worst losers and lost Rs 27.50 and Rs 6.24 to close at Rs 1952.50 and Rs 118.59 respectively.
Hasnain Asghar Ali at Aziz Fidahusein Co said that the news of revival of consultative group on capital markets fuelled the bulls. The main board stocks allowed the bulls to beat the drum, accumulation on opening allowed the air pocket opening a follow up support. The main board stocks of oil and gas and banking attracted the investors and the index soon registered triple digit gains. With the support of corporate and retail participants the index sustained the gains, thus allowing a wider range of fundamentally strong stocks to make it to the buyers'' choice.
The unconfirmed news that India might remove import duty introduced on cement imports allowed the relevant sector to perform well. He said that the absence of leverage players was certainly felt, only this time difference between buyer and sellers allowed the stocks to recover swiftly, as the absence of seller at intervals forced the buyer to increase price in order to accumulate the desired quantity. Day end offloading led to massive price erosion. The index closed positive, but with clipped gains, thus leading to deflation in the rates of the stocks, which were inflated mainly due to wide difference between buyer and seller.