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

BRIndex100 gained 98.16 points or 2.09 percent to close at 4,788.45 points. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,792.66 and intraday low of 4,713.01 points. Volumes stood at 348.269 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 646.3 points or 2.66 percent to close at 24,979.53 points with a turnover of 212.522 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index surged by 787.78 points or 1.79 percent and closed at 44,741.36 points. Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on ready counter increased to 383.105 million shares as compared to 370.528 million shares traded Wednesday.

Foreign investors however were net sellers of shares worth $1.373 million. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 94 billion to Rs 7.865 trillion. Out of total 391 active scrips, 267 closed in positive and 100 in negative while the value of 24 stocks remained unchanged.

Ghani Glo. Hol. was the volume leader with 35.911 million shares and increased by Rs 1.93 to close at Rs 28.59 followed by TRG Pak that surged by Rs 10.35 to close at Rs 148.48 with 28.686 million shares. Rafhan Maize and Bata Pak were the top gainers increasing by Rs 350.00 and Rs 80.00 respectively to close at Rs 9850.00 and Rs 1940.00 while Indus Motor Co and Imrooz Modaraba were the top losers declining by Rs 13.18 and Rs 12.22 respectively to close at Rs 1122.18 and Rs 150.78.

BR Automobile Assembler Index increased by 136.87 points or 1.57 percent to close at 8,838.24 points with total turnover of 2.255 million shares.

BR Cement Index surged by 152.94 points or 2.16 percent to close at 7,238.53 points with 22.733 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index added 124.42 points or 1.49 percent to close at 8,478.08 points with 19.135 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index gained 45.95 points or 0.83 percent to close at 5,557.47 points with 8.058 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index inched up by 50.46 points or 1.3 percent to close at 3,920.71 points with 8.034 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,636.98 points, up 166.61 points or 4.8 percent with 86.172 million shares.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that post foreign selling Wednesday and realizing loss of 451 points, the KSE-100 Index rebounded with 788 points.

Cement and steel sector stocks remained buoyant, where investors sounded optimistic on upcoming quarterly results, whereas tech stocks added to the momentum and hit upper circuit by the end of session. By the end of session, UBL also showed healthy price growth.

Buying activity was witnessed across the board but was cautious.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (up 135 points), Technology (up 121 points), Cement (up 118 points), Fertilizer (up 59 points) and E&P (up 55 points).

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include TRG (up 111 points), LUCK (up 50 points), DAWH (up 43 points), ENGRO (up 37 points) and HBL (up 35 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include ABOT (down 4 points), INDU (down 4 points), IGIHL (down 2 points), SHFA (down 1 point) and BYCO (down 1 point).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021