KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Tuesday witnessed a bullish trend and closed on positive note on the back of fresh buying, mainly by local investors.

BRIndex100 gained 23.69 points or 0.58 percent to close at 4,126.70 points. BRIndex-100 hit intraday high of 4,150.21 and intraday low of 4,100.97 points. Volumes stood at 158.821 million shares.

BRIndex30 inched up by 106.23 points or 0.52 percent to close at 20,668.07 points with a turnover of 113.571 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index increased by 230.84 points or 0.58 percent to close at 39,863.36 points. Daily trading volumes on the ready counter stood at 174.718 million shares as compared to 195.467 million shares traded Monday.

Foreign investors however remained net sellers of shares worth $925,799. The market capitalization increased by Rs 26 billion to Rs 7.344 trillion. Out of total 377 active scrips, 211 closed in positive and 137 in negative while the value of 29 stocks remained unchanged.

Unity Foods was the volume leader with 19.008 million shares and gained Rs 0.46 to close at Rs 23.58 followed by Maple Leaf that lost Rs 0.33 to close at Rs 37.08 with 14.519 million shares. Mari Petroleum and Sunrays Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 28.81 and Rs 25.98 respectively to close at Rs 1306.14 and Rs 376.99 while Nestle Pakistan and Rafhan Maize were the top losers declining by Rs 50.00 each to close at Rs 6500.00 and Rs 8400.00, respectively.

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 45.82 points or 0.61 percent to close at 7,616.07 points with total turnover of 2.666 million shares.

BR Cement Index inched up by 19.87 points or 0.35 percent to close at 5,718.25 points with 24.431 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index closed at 8,363.43 points, up 35.99 points or 0.43 percent with 6.955 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index lost 9.91 points or 0.21 percent to close at 4,804.76 points with 6.832 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index increased by 49.41 points or 1.37 percent to close at 3,644.82 points with 16.336 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index surged by 37.15 points or 2.03 percent to close at 1,868.70 points with 32.485 million shares.

Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said that the PSX showed slight signs of recovery as the KSE-100 Index made an intraday high of plus 389 points and closed at 39,863 level, up 231 points.

The positive impact was observed mainly due to the decision of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to keep the policy rate unchanged at 7 percent. However, a rapid increase in coronavirus cases can be a threat to economy as it might lead to lockdown. The government of Sindh has restricted working hours from 6am to 6pm for local markets.

POL (up 2.2 percent), OGDC (up 1.2 percent) and PPL (up 0.8 percent) from the E&P sector edged higher as crude oil prices inched up in international markets. Moreover Steel and Refinery sector also saw some recovery where ASL (up 4.7 percent), ASTL (up 0.4 percent), MUGHAL (up 2.6 percent), ATRL (up 0.7 percent) and NRL (up 1.3 percent) all closed in the green.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020