KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Friday witnessed another bullish session on the back of aggressive buying in almost all sectors.

The market opened in green zone, remained bullish throughout the day and closed on strong positive note with healthy gains due to positive news flows regarding the IMF program resumption as Pak rupee further appreciated against the US dollar. Additionally, positive results announcement triggered the investor participation.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index surged by 670.87 points or 1.62 percent and crossed 42,000 psychological level to close at 42,096.24 points. During the session, the index hit 42,167.48 points intraday high level.

Trading activity improved significantly as total daily volumes on ready counter increased to 406.680 million shares as compared to 275.431 million shares traded Thursday while total daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 11.636 billion against previous day’s Rs 7.904 billion.

BRIndex100 gained 78.07 points or 1.9 percent to close at 4,183.03 points with total daily turnover of 374.035 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 309.3 points or 2.05 percent to close at 15,432.70 points with total daily trading volumes of 276.850 million shares.

Foreign investors also remained net buyers of shares worth $456,846. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 87 billion to Rs 7.047 trillion. Out of total 345 active scrips, 264 closed in positive and only 58 in negative while the value of 23 stocks remained unchanged.

Cnergyico PK was the volume leader with 64.344 million shares and gained Rs 0.51 to close at Rs 5.51 followed by Pak Refinery that increased by Rs 1.17 to close at Rs 18.01 with 29.939 million shares. WorldCall Telecom closed at Rs 1.30, up Rs 0.07 with 20.360 million shares.

Allawasaya Textile and Nestle Pakistan were the top gainers increasing by Rs 271.95 and Rs 190.10 respectively to close at Rs 3,898.45 and Rs 6,185.00 while Bata Pak and Sanofi-Aventis were the top losers declining by Rs 154.89 and Rs 50.00 respectively to close at Rs 1,945.11 and Rs 1,220.00.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that bulls triumphed the trading session at PSX. In the first trading session, KSE-100 Index remained in the green zone as value buying was witnessed across the board. In the second session, investors gained confidence due to positive news flows regarding the IMF Program resumption as Pak rupee further appreciated against the US dollar. Additionally, positive results announcement triggered the investor participation. Refinery and cement sectors remained in the limelight.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (up 181.8 points), Cements (up 134.4 points), Automobile Assembler (up 42.8 points), OMCs (up 39.4 points) and Power (up 37.0 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index increased by 229.29 points or 2.47 percent to close at 9,519.35 points with total turnover of 2.498 million shares.

BR Cement Index surged by 185.99 points or 4.57 percent to close at 4,259.61 points with 43.450 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index added 173.38 points or 2.01 percent to close at 8,795.14 points with 16.873 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index gained 110.26 points or 2.01 percent to close at 5,587.93 points with 16.602 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index inched up by 29.39 points or 0.76 percent to close at 3,900.49 points with 17.803 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,650.19 points, up 17.77 points or 0.49 percent with 47.639 million shares. Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that bullish trend witnessed on strong rupee and easing trade deficit on reduced imports. He said strong financial results in cement sector and reports of COAS discussion on IMF deal with UAE and Saudi Arabia and speculations over release of IMF bailout funds this month played a catalyst role in bullish activity.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022