KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday witnessed bullish trend and closed on strong positive note on the first session of New Year following fresh buying by local and foreign investors. The benchmark KSE-100 Index surged by 290.82 points or 0.65 percent to close at 44,886.89 points. Overall, trading activity remained thin as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 195.167 million shares as compared to 317.646 million shares traded on previous session.
BRIndex100 gained 37.44 points or 0.82 percent to close at 4,614.78 points with total daily turnover of 173.476 million shares.
BRIndex30 increased by 139.21 points or 0.72 percent to close at 19,515.67 points with trading volumes of 127.985 million shares.
Foreign investors also remained net buyers of shares worth $1.171 million. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 16 billion to Rs 7.700 trillion. Out of total 362 active scrips, 212 closed in positive and 137 in negative while the value of 13 stocks remained unchanged.
Pak International Bulk Terminal was the volume leader with 12.583 million shares and gained Rs 0.34 to close at Rs 7.70 followed by TPL Properties that closed at Rs 32.56, down Rs 0.09 with 11.087 million shares.
Unilever Foods and Colgate Palmolive were the top gainers increasing by Rs 267.00 and Rs 122.99 respectively to close at Rs 19267.00 and Rs 2400.00 while Bata Pak and Pak Tobacco were the top losers declining by Rs 161.15 and Rs 74.25, respectively to close at Rs 2010.00 and Rs 1123.34.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market closed in the green zone as trade deficit declined to $4.1 billion during December 2021 and recovery in Pak rupee against dollar over last week.
The market opened with low volumes but rally in cement stocks was initiated as international coal prices dropped for the third consecutive session. CPI for the month of December 2021 clocked in at 12.28 percent on year-on-year basis, highest inflation in 22 months.
In the last trading hour, across the board buying was witnessed mainly in cyclical stocks. Activity continued to remain sideways as market witnessed hefty volumes in the 3rd tier stocks.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Fertilizer (up 58 points), Cement (up 54 points), Technology (up 50 points), Engineering (up 39 points) and Banks (up 33 points).
BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 10.5 points or 0.12 percent to close at 8,502.03 points with total turnover of 1.527 million shares.
BR Cement Index increased by 65.22 points or 1.12 percent to close at 5,903.78 points with 12.347 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index inched up by 24.78 points or 0.25 percent to close 9,787.52 with 11.188 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index lost 10.03 points or 0.18 percent to close at 5,540.32 points with 9.529 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index added 20.26 points or 0.54 percent to close at 3,802.91 points with 8.204 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,212.03 points, up 67.04 points or 1.62 percent with 32.028 million shares.
Neelam Naz at JS Global Capital said that the benchmark KSE-100 Index started the New Year on a positive note and closed in green zone at 44,887, gaining 291 points.
The market volumes remained thin with total traded volume clocking in at 195 million shares where PIBTL (up 4.6 percent), TPLP (down 0.3 percent), GGL (up 2.0 percent), FNEL (up 4.3 percent) and CNERGY (down 2.3 percent) accounted for 28 percent of the total volume.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022