KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday closed on a positive note on the last trading day of the year 2020 on the back of fresh buying, mainly by local investors.

BRIndex100 gained 11.16 points or 0.24 percent to close at 4,610.06 points. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,633.11 and intraday low of 4,599.60 points. Volumes stood at 518.001 million shares.

BRIndex30 inched up by 113.86 points or 0.49 percent to close at 23,249.05 points with a turnover of 255.862 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index closed at 43,755.38 points, up 60.62 points or 0.14 percent. Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on the ready counter increased to 578.250 million shares as compared to 455.994 million shares traded Wednesday.

Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $1.740 million. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 15 billion to Rs 8.035 trillion. Out of total 417 active scrips, 207 closed in positive and 193 in negative while the value of 17 stocks remained unchanged.

Pak Refinery was the volume leader with 41.456 million shares and gained Rs 0.51 to close at Rs 23.79 followed by Silk Bank that inched up by Rs 0.06 to close at Rs 1.08 with 38.504 million shares. Unilever Foods and Murree Brewery were the top gainers increasing by Rs 500.00 and Rs 25.64 respectively to close at Rs 14000.00 and Rs 627.42 while Nestle Pakistan and Premier Sugar were the top losers declining by Rs 179.99 and Rs 33.00 respectively to close at Rs 6665.01 and Rs 446.00.

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 23.16 points or 0.27 percent to close at 8,700.74 points with total turnover of 6.529 million shares.

BR Cement Index increased by 87.85 points or 1.41 percent to close at 6,311.06 points with 57.555 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index fell by 13.17 points or 0.15 percent to close at 8,892.23 points with 56.704 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index surged by 72.61 points or 1.46 percent to close at 5,057.98 points with 22.686 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,974.96 points, down 3.98 points or 0.1 percent with 26.832 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index inched up by 13.36 points or 0.49 percent to close at 2,729.40 points with 73.458 million shares.

Danish Ladhani at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 Index closed 61 points positive at 43,755 levels after making a high of plus 195 points on the last trading day of year 2020.

Interest was mostly seen in the Financials and Cements stocks where MCB (up 0.8 percent), UBL (up 1.3 percent), LUCK (up 0.8 percent), MLCF (up 3.3 percent), KOHC (up 1.5 percent), DGKC (up 1.6 percent) and FCCL (up 2.2 percent) were the major movers adding 86 points towards the close.

Moreover, investors' interest was seen in the sideboard stocks where PRL (up 2.2 percent), SILK (up 5.9 percent), FFBL (up 7.5 percent), TRG (up 0.5 percent), PIBTL (up 0.7 percent), MLCF (up 3.3 percent) and ANL (up 1.1 percent) cumulatively contributed a total of 232 million shares.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021