KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Friday witnessed a bullish trend with increased trading volumes and closed on a strong positive note with healthy gains on the back of aggressive buying in almost all sectors.

The market opened on a positive note and remained in green zone throughout the day due to buying by local investors coupled with institutional support.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 45,706.29 points intraday high and closed at 45,675.87 points, with net gain of 234.77 points or 0.52 percent. Trading activity also improved as total daily volumes on ready counter increased to 194.053 million shares as compared to 152.862 million shares traded on Thursday however total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 4.314 billion against previous day’s Rs 4.778 billion.

BRIndex100 gained 29.81 points or 0.64 percent to close at 4,667.12 points with total daily turnover of 165.399 million shares.

BRIndex30 inched up by 86.37 points or 0.49 percent to close at 17,799.59 points with total daily turnover of 133.762 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained net sellers of shares worth $1.223 million. Total market capitalization increased by Rs billion to Rs 7.796 trillion. Out of total 333 active scrips, 179 closed in positive and 131 in negative while the value of 23 stocks remained unchanged.

Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 60.301 million shares however lost Rs 0.10 to close at Rs 8.26 followed by Soneri Bank that closed at Rs 10.50, up Rs 0.02 with 16.356 million shares. Telecard Limited inched down by Rs 0.11 to close at Rs 15.99 with 11.100 million shares.

Unilever Foods and Nestle Pakistan were the top gainers increasing by Rs 500.00 and Rs 99.00 respectively to close at Rs 21,500.00 and Rs 5,749.00 while Allawasaya Textile and Bata Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 127.66 and Rs 71.50 respectively to close at Rs 1,574.56 and Rs 2,101.00.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market witnessed positive momentum along with improved trading volumes due to decline in crude oil prices. After the approval of two new bills by the Senate pertaining to the Gas Sector, “Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2022” and “Weighted Average Cost of Gas (WACOG) Bill” which led SNGP, SSGC, OGDC, PPL and PSO to close in the green zone. In Banking Sector, BOP remained in the limelight as it announced financial result declaring 12.5 percent bonus shares and EPS beating market expectations.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (up 47.4 points), Fertilizer (up 36.3 points), OMC’s (up 34.2 points), E&P (up 31.6 points) and Cement (up 28.3 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 37.49 points or 0.41 percent to close at 9,056.28 points with total turnover of 580,654 shares.

BR Cement Index gained 38.71 points or 0.69 percent to close at 5,645.60 points with 3.135 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index inched up by 52.94 points or 0.52 percent to close at 10,254.76 points with 83.310 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index added 26.46 points or 0.44 percent to close at 6,042.06 points with 11.276 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index increased by 43.2 points or 1.09 percent to close at 3,992.71 points with 18.979 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,661.78 points, up 16.12 points or 0.44 percent with 29.398 million shares.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that positive session was observed on last trading session of the week, as the KSE-100 Index increased to close at 45,676 level, up by 0.5 percent.

This positivity in market can be attributed to Weighted Average Cost of Gas (WACOG) bill that got passed from senate yesterday which will result in lower circular debt pile up, resultantly OGDC, PPL and SNGP were among the top contributors today with 60 points.

Apart from aforementioned companies EFERT and UBL were among top contributors, as they added 51 points to the index.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022