KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday witnessed a highly volatile session however after moving both ways, closed on strong positive note with healthy gains on the back of fresh buying at the fag end, mainly by local investors. BRIndex100 gained 80.32 points or 1.74 percent to close to 4,698.30 points. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,698.30 points and intraday low of 4,574.71 points. Volumes stood at 343.667 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 491.13 points or 2.23 percent to close at 22,554.60 points with a turnover of 222.688 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index surged by 532.86 points or 1.20 percent to close at 44,899.60 points. Trading activity however remained low as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 372.433 million shares as compared to 468.761 million shares traded Wednesday.

Foreign investors however remained net sellers of shares worth $228,230. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 103 billion to Rs 7.804 trillion. Out of total 557 active scrips, 385 closed in positive and 157 in negative while the value of 15 stocks remained unchanged.

K-Electric was the volume leader with 32.484 million shares and gained Rs 0.69 to close at Rs 4.00 followed by Byco Petroleum that closed at Rs 8.18, up Rs 0.45 with 29.767 million shares. Nestle Pakistan and Bata Pak were the top gainers increasing by Rs 308.13 and Rs 109.84 respectively to close at Rs 6035.80 and Rs 1773.41 while Colgate Palmolive and Philip Morris Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 113.89 and Rs 35.69 respectively to close at Rs 2207.11 and Rs 764.31.

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 45.81 points or 0.53 percent to close at 8,630.28 points with total turnover of 2.125 million shares.

BR Cement Index surged by 191.2 points or 3.32 percent to close at 5,942.35 points with 29.436 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index increased by 127.79 points or 1.39 percent to close at 9,329.41 points with 27.937 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 81.05 points or 1.49 percent to close at 5,511.25 points with 37.674 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index added 78.19 points or 2.14 percent to close at 3,739.22 points with 16.521 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,747.51 points, up 0.81 points or 0.02 percent with 82.392 million shares.

Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said that the rollercoaster ride continued at the PSX, where the index made an intraday high and a low of 44,900 and 43,972, respectively, to close at 44,900, 533 points. Total volume traded for the day was recorded at 372 million shares where top contributors were KEL (up 21 percent), BYCO (up 5.8 percent), ANL (up 6.2 percent), WTL (up 0.4 percent) and TELE (up 1.2 percent). Cement sector recovered in the trading session where FCCL (up 5.6 percent), CHCC (up 4.9 percent), DGKC (up 6.0 percent), PIOC (up 5.2 percent) and MLCF (up 4.5 percent) were the major movers of the sector.

From the E&P sector, OGDC (up 2.7 percent), POL (up 2.2 percent) and PPL (up 3.3 percent) gained to close higher as crude oil prices edged higher in the international market. CPHL (up 2.8 percent) from the Pharma sector declared its FY21 result, where the company reported an EPS of Rs 4.64 with a cash payout of Rs 1.50 per share along with a 10 percent bonus.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021