KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday witnessed a positive trend on the back of healthy buying, mainly by local investors and institutions. BRIndex100 gained 16.88 points or 0.38 percent to close at 4,427.65 points. BRIndex100 hit an intraday high of 4,441.25 and intraday low of 4,407.97 points. Volumes stood at 429.224 million shares.

BRIndex30 inched up by 80.4 points or 0.36 percent to close at 22,366.51 points with a turnover of 283.750 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index increased by 101.81 points or 0.24 percent and closed at 42,305.84 points. Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on ready counter increased to 472.363 million shares and compared to 438.146 million shares traded on Wednesday.

Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $1.979 million. The market capitalization increased by Rs 12 billion to Rs 7.751 trillion. Out of total 400 active scrips, 194 closed in positive and 190 in negative while the value of 16 stocks remained unchanged.

Pak International Bulk Terminal was the volume leader with 50.015 million shares and gained Rs 0.65 to close at Rs 13.55 followed by Unity Foods that closed at Rs 28.43, up Rs 0.51 with 35.614 million shares. Rafhan Maize and Sapphire Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 309.00 and Rs 73.00 respectively to close at Rs 9100.00 and Rs 1059.00 while Gatron Industries and Nestle Pakistan were the top losers declining by Rs 37.48 and Rs 25.00 respectively to close at Rs 500.02 and Rs 6725.00.

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 2.43 points or 0.03 percent to close at 8,335.40 points with total turnover of 2.339 million shares.

BR Cement Index gained 21.07 points or 0.35 percent to close at 6,048.90 points with 23.761 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index inched up by 40.38 points or 0.46 percent to close at 8,765.26 points with 32.702 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index decreased by 15.53 points or 0.31 percent to close at 5,015.91 points with 41.272 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,901.00 points, down 14.59 points or 0.37 percent with 19.482 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index increased by 30.34 points or 1.3 percent to close at 2,356.23 points with 60.665 million shares.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market maintained the cautious approach as have been witnessed in the previous sessions, however, in the process discounted the potential negative impact of resignation of opposition parties from national and provincial assemblies as well as the threat of Indian false flag operation.

Investors focused gaze on fundamentally sound scrips, essentially the main board scrips, such as HBL and NBP which not only highlights dividend prospects but have so far shown healthy profits in the bottom line.

Cement sector remained range bound, as did O&GMCs and Fertilizer sectors. Investors, in general, have been waiting for a clear positive trigger and have weathered the threats from political as well as law and order situation.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (up 47 points),

Technology (up 21 points), Cement (up 15 points), Transport (up 13 points), Fertilizer (up 12 points) and E&P (down 20 points).

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include FFC (up 32 points), TRG (up 21 points), HBL (up 17 points), BAHL (up 15 points) and PIBTL (up 13 points). Stocks that contributed negatively

include ENGRO (down 20 points), MARI (down 10 points), POL (down 7 points), KTML (down 5 points) and UBL (down 5 points).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020