KARACHI: A bullish trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange on Friday with healthy trading activities on the back of expectations of reaching a much-awaited staff-level agreement with the IMF soon.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index increased by 208.33 points or 0.50 percent and close at 41,793.87 points. During the session, the index hit 41,902.02 points intraday high however closed at slightly lower level due to profit in some stocks.

Trading activity also improved as total daily volumes on ready counter increased to 272.742 million shares as compared to 229.088 million shares traded Thursday, however total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 6.770 billion against previous session’s Rs 7.431 billion.

BRIndex100 gained 26.03 points or 0.62 percent to close at 4,193.70 points with total daily turnover of 241.637 million shares.

BRIndex30 added 78.54 points or 0.53 percent to close at 15,011.67 points with total daily trading volumes of 176.029 million shares. Foreign investors also remained net buyers of shares worth $564,867. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 16 billion to Rs 6.383 trillion. Out of total 329 active scrips, 222 closed in positive and only 86 in negative while the value of 21 stocks remained unchanged.

Fauji Foods was the volume leader with 24.362 million shares and gained Rs 0.58 to close at Rs 5.70 followed by Telecard Limited that inched up by Rs 0.39 to close at Rs 8.03 with 23.457 million shares. WorldCall Telecom closed at Rs 1.32, up Rs 0.01 with 19.078 million shares.

Rafhan Maize and Bata Pak were the top gainers increasing by Rs 534.00 and Rs 48.00 respectively to close at Rs 8249.00 and Rs 1835.00 while Unilever Foods and Ismail Industries were the top losers declining by Rs 1317.55 and Rs 18.23 respectively to close at Rs 18210.00 and Rs 460.10.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that the KSE-100 Index traded in the positive zone during the trading session to close at 41,794 level, up by 0.50 percent. This positivity in the market can be attributed to Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar stated that the staff-level agreement with the IMF would be struck in the next few days.

Major contribution to the index came from SYS, EFERT, AKBL, MCB and MEBL, as they cumulatively attributed plus 110 points to the index. On the flip side HUBC, BAHL, PPL, BAFL and POL lost value to weigh down on the index by minus 355 points.

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 33.08 points or 0.44 percent to close at 7,601.35 points with total turnover of 2.409 million shares.

BR Cement Index lost 1.47 points or 0.04 percent to close at 4,006.02 points with 25.774 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index added 62.76 points or 0.75 percent to close at 8,383.31 points with 18.917 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index increased by 59.31 points or 0.82 percent to close at 7,263.61 points with 11.879 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index inched down by 7.22 points or 0.18 percent to close at 4,038.20 points with 17.873 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,330.96 points, up 44.85 points or 1.05 percent with 56.174 million shares.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that a positive session was recorded at the PSX to end the business week. The market opened in the green as bulls took over the index and proceeded to make an intraday high of plus 316.48 points on the back of expectations to reach a much awaited staff-level agreement with the IMF soon.

The index maintained the bullish momentum as Pak Rupee gained strength against the US dollar giving the investors a confidence boost as a result of which substantial volumes were observed across the board with third tier stocks leading the volume board.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Commercial Banks (up 70.8 points), Fertilizer (up 36.0 points), Technology & Communication (up 35.3 points), Inv. Banks/Inv. Cos/Securities Cos. (up 16.8 points) and Textile Composite (up 14.7 points).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023