Late buying in some selective stocks on Friday supported the KSE-100 index to close in green at 9,614.19 points level with a net gain of 34.38 points. The market witnessed highly volatile activity with the index oscillating between 9,637.04 points intra-day high and 9,552.87 points intra-day low levels due to investors' cautious stance over prevailing political situation in the country.
The investors avoided taking fresh positions before announcement of Monetary Policy due on Saturday. Trading activity slightly improved as the volumes at ready counter increased to 183.998 million shares as compared to 182.775 million shares traded on Thursday.
The overall market capitalisation increased by Rs 11 billion to Rs 2.767 trillion. Out of the total 349 active scrips, 200 closed in positive and 130 in negative while the value of 19 scrips remained unchanged. Lotte Pakistan was the volume leader with 55.135 million shares gaining Re. 1.00 to close at Rs 11.35. PTCL increased by Re. 0.56 to close at Rs 19.84 with 16.591 million shares.
Byco Petroleum inched up by Re. 0.42 to close at Rs 15.45 with 11.626 million shares. Arif Habib Sec surged by Rs 1.72 to close at Rs 45.87 with 9.802 million shares. TRG Pakistan increased by Re. 0.38 to close at Rs 3.25 with 9.063 million shares. Fresh buying was witnessed in the banking sector, Bank Al Falah and NBP gained Re. 0.10 and Rs 1.53 to close at Rs 13.36 and Rs 80.78 with 8.650 million shares and 3.917 million shares, respectively.
In the cement sector, DG Khan Cement and Lucky Cement increased by Re. 0.44 and Rs 2.80 to close at Rs 30.60 and Rs 71.07 with 5.669 million shares and 5.153 million shares, respectively. Jahangir Siddiqui Co inched up by Re. 0.73 to close at Rs 28.68 with 5.229 million shares.
Wyeth Pak and Rafhan Maize were the highest gainers with Rs 60.83 and Rs 50.18 to close at Rs 1280.83 and Rs 1429.50, respectively while Unilever Pakistan and Siemens Pak were the worst losers with Rs 95.53 and Rs 58.33 to close at Rs 2750.10 and Rs 1280.00, respectively.
Hasnain Asghar Ali at Aziz Fidahusein Co said the technical bounce back from the previous session that continued until early hours on Friday, stagnation and unwillingness of the market participants to make fresh bets, however, led to a prolonged stagnation. Substantial traded volume in Lotte-PTA kept the activity alive, along with PTC due to the latest fundamental development regarding payment commitment by the new management; sell on strength in the main board stocks kept the index in brown zone.
Inability of the local bourse to perform, added an aggression to the selling in the main board stocks, mainly those having local reservations over decline in payout and revenues, along with those trading at high multiples. Activity increased towards the closing bell, when investment companies, along with cement and textile sector stocks mainly on account of short covering, thus allowing the index to register positive closing after four sessions.