KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday witnessed a bullish trend and closed on strong positive note with healthy gains on the back of aggressive buying, mainly in oil and gas sector stocks.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index surged by 722.47 points or 1.79 percent and crossed 41,000 psychological level to close at 41,193.63 points. The index hit 41,295.31 points intraday high.

Trading activity also improved as total daily volumes on ready counter increased to 176.726 million shares as compared to 105.053 million shares traded last Friday. The daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 8.794 billion against Friday’s Rs 4.181 billion.

BRIndex100 added 75.85 points or 1.88 percent to close at 4,115.33 points with total daily turnover of 161.755 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 471.52 points or 3.27 percent to close at 14,892.66 points with total daily trading volumes of 109.846 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained net sellers of shares worth $85,938. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 105 billion to Rs 6.457 trillion. Out of total 332 active scrips, 198 closed in positive and 107 in negative while the value of 27 stocks remained unchanged.

PPL was the volume leader with 21.833 million shares and surged by Rs 5.59 to close at Rs 80.15 followed by SNGPL that closed at Rs 43.47, up Rs 3.03 with 13.436 million shares. OGDC increased by Rs 6.44 to close at Rs 92.38 with 10.552 million shares.

Rafhan Maize and Sapphire Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 299.00 and Rs 76.50 respectively to close at Rs 8299.00 and Rs 1096.50 while Unilever Foods and Nestle Pakistan were the top losers declining by Rs 353.93 and Rs 64.01 respectively to close at Rs 23646.07 and Rs 5299.99.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the benchmark KSE-100 index enjoyed a positive start to the week. After a depressing previous close, the market opened in the positive zone as bulls stormed the index and achieved an intraday high of plus 831.13 points after it was reported that the government would adhere to the terms of the International Monetary Fund. The E&P sector remained in the spotlight following the news that the government is considering to settle the outstanding gas sector circular debt. Across the board volume increased substantially.

Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (up 327.8 points), OMCs (up 74 points), Commercial Banks (up 68.9 points), Technology & Communication (up 55.8 points) and Cement (up 54.7 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 53.91 points or 0.74 percent to close at 7,360.38 points with total turnover of 1.733 million shares.

BR Cement Index increased by 73.12 points or 2.0 percent to close at 3,736.69 points with 11.339 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index inched up by 59.39 or 0.74 percent to close at 8,053.76 points with 11.288 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index added 75.46 points or 1.12 percent to close at 6,784.35 points with 18.725 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index surged by 242.93 points or 6.02 percent to close at 4,279.71 points with 62.630 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,172.61 points, up 64.55 points or 1.57 percent with 22.172 million shares.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that Pakistan equities closed positive where the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 41,190 level, up 1.78 percent.

The market opened on a positive note where initial gains were led by OGDC, PPL, SNGP and SSGC as the government proposed gas-based circular debt plan to IMF where the government plan to settle Rs 540 billion through cash settlement supplementary grant and dividends, where SNGP and SSGC will get the supplementary grants and both Sui’s will pay to OGDC and PPL.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023