KARACHI: A positive momentum was observed at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on the last trading day Friday.

BRIndex100 gained 21.32 points or 0.48 percent to close at 4,448.97 points compared to 4,427.65 points Thursday. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,469.25 points and intraday low of 4,426.68 points. Volume at BRIndex100 stood at 507 million and Pakistan Refinery was the most traded company with a volume of 84 million.

BRIndex30 increased by 109.33 points or 0.49 percent to reach at 22,475.84 points up from 22,366.51 points. It touched an intraday high of 22,616.81 points and an intraday Low of 22,362.70 points. Overall turnover at BRIndex was 283.750 million shares.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index remained in the green zone throughout as it closed at 42,470 points, up 164 points, after making a high of 322 points on Friday. Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on ready counter surged to 557.6 million shares compared to 472.363 million shares traded a day earlier.

The market capitalization increased by Rs 24 billion to Rs 7.775 trillion. Out of total 414 active scrips, 225 closed in positive and 167 in negative while the value of 22 stocks remained unchanged.

Ahsan Mehanti an analysts said that stocks closed bullish amid record trades led by selected scrips across the board as investor weigh upbeat data on $2.34 billion remittances for November 2020. In addition, Moody's upgrade on longer term FC deposit ratings of Pakistan blue chip banks and ADB report affirming economic recovery supported by Govt emergency relief.

H said that Pak Rupee recovery, renewed hopes for positive outcome record receipts in Roshan Digital accounts and ADB expectation for growth rate of 2.6pc to 2.8 pc played a catalyst role in bullish close.

Pak Refinery was the volume leader with 84.82 million shares and closed at Rs 21.19 followed by Azgard Nine that closed at Rs 23.96 with 35.32 million shares. Unity Food ranked third with 35 million shares. Nestle Pakistan and Sapphire Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 94.48 and Rs 40.00 respectively to close at Rs 6,819.48 and Rs 1,099.00 respectively. Unilever Foods and Colgate Palm were the top losers declining by Rs 900.00 and Rs 70.00 respectively to close at Rs 13,600.00 and Rs 2,830.00.

BR Automobile Assembler Index surged by 37.99 points to close at 8,373.39 points with a total turnover of 6.253 million. BR Cement Index closed at 6,071.73 points with a net positive change of 22.83 points or a percentage change of 0.38 and a total turnover of 33 million.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 27.28 points to close at 8,737.98 points with a total turnover of 34.62 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index gained 45.71 points to reach 5,061.62 points with a total turnover of 29.5 million shares. BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,976.56 points with a net positive change of 75.56 points and a total turnover of 37 million shares. BR Tech. & Comm. Index declined 30.93 points to close at 2,325.30 points with turnover of 70.693 million shares.

According to Topline market review positive momentum was observed at the exchange led by the E&P sector on the back of increase in crude oil prices, as the index gained to close at 42,470 level up by 0.4 percent.

Index heavy weight E&P sector gained 2.5 percent on DoD basis. Major contribution to the index came from MARI, PPL, POL, LUCK and HUBC, as they cumulatively contributed 108 points to the index.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that international crude oil prices went overboard in last night's trading which saw both WTI and Brent increasing by 4 percent and Brent crossing $50/bbl level, which was last observed in March 2020. Local E&P sector saw pronounced impact of crude oil prices, with significant interest in OGDC and PPL.

Similarly, banking sector stocks showed persistent interest from investors, especially in HBL and NBP. Among Cement sector stocks, LUCK performed relatively better in comparison with its peers. Volume leaders had PRL on top slot with 84.7M shares, followed by ANL (35.2M) and UNITY (35.2M).

Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (+117pts), Textile (+33pts), Power (+26pts), Refinery (+15pts) and O&GMCs (+14pts).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020