KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday witnessed a bullish trend and closed on strong positive note with healthy gains on the back of aggressive buying, mainly by local investors coupled with institutional support.

The market opened on positive note and remained bullish throughout the session as buying was witnessed in almost all the sectors.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index surged by 1,120.15 points or 2.59 percent to cross 44,000 psychological level to close at 44,366.86 points.

Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on ready counter increased to 398.094 million shares as compared to 212.350 million shares traded on Tuesday.

BRIndex100 gained 139.62 points or 3.17 percent to close at 4,547.59 points with total daily turnover of 338.916 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 1183.34 points or 6.78 percent to close at 18,626.42 points with total daily trading volumes of 235.954 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained net sellers of shares worth $231,536. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 190 billion to Rs 7.609 trillion. Out of total 374 active scrips, 305 closed in positive and only 60 in negative while the value of 9 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 53.266 million shares and gained Rs 0.40 to close at Rs 2.20 followed by Byco Petroleum that inched up by Rs 0.76 to close at Rs 6.75 with 34.603 million shares.

Colgate Palmolive and Bata Pak were the top gainers increasing by Rs 130.00 and Rs 127.38 respectively to close at Rs 2599.99 and Rs 1902.38 while Allawasaya Textile and Shield Corp were the top losers declining by Rs 47.50 and Rs 21.75 respectively to close at Rs 2450.00 and Rs 279.24.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the KSE-100 Index stayed in the bullish momentum throughout the day as the market celebrated interest rate not entering into double digits and SBP’s forward guidance that the interest rate would remain “broadly unchanged” in the near term.

The market opened with a positive note as traders took aggressive bet on cement, steel and technology stocks. On the institutional front, buying activity was witnessed across the board from the mutual funds. Moving forward, upcoming auction of treasury bills will play a vital role to set the direction of market.Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (up 263 points), Technology and Communication (up 196 points), E&P (up 110 points), OMC’S (up 74 points) and Chemical (up 62 points). BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 144.54 points or 1.74 percent to close at 8,446.90 points with total turnover of 3.757 million shares.

BR Cement Index surged by 376.43 points or 7.05 percent to close at 5,719.55 points with 34.458 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index closed at 9,822.92 points, up 5.69 points or 0.06 percent with 13.259 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 60.3 points or 1.11 percent to close at 5,474.70 points with 14.964 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index added 114.08 points or 3.08 percent to close at 3,816.38 points with 40.106 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index increased by 269.63 points or 7.28 percent to close at 3,975.76 points with 95.735 million shares.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021