KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday witnessed a bullish trend and closed on strong positive note with healthy gains. The benchmark KSE-100 Index surged by 626.01 points or 1.44 percent and after 14 months, closed above 44,000 psychological level at 44,178.85 points.

The index hit 44,212.77 points intraday high and 43,550.14 points intraday low level.

Trading activity however remained low as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 297.822 million shares as compared to 351.181 million shares traded Wednesday. The daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 12.428 billion against previous session’s Rs 12.014 billion.

BRIndex100 added 72.25 points or 1.65 percent to close at 4,452.97 points with total daily turnover of 261.161 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 290.21 points or 1.9 percent to close at 15,554.73 points with total daily trading volumes of 171.479 million shares.

Foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $851,003. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 76 billion to Rs 6.691 trillion. Out of total 335 active scrips, 200 closed in positive and 112 in negative while the value of 23 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 28.845 million shares and inched up by Rs 0.03 to close at Rs 1.21 followed by Pak Elektron that gained Rs 0.27 to close at Rs 10.66 with 16.169 million shares. PPL increased by Rs 2.21 to close at Rs 67.24 with 14.126 million shares.

Mehmood Textile and Shield Corp were the top gainers increasing by Rs 43.15 and Rs 21.97 respectively to close at Rs 725.00 and Rs 314.86 while Pak Services and Bata Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 52.12 and Rs 34.00 respectively to close at Rs 756.68 and Rs 1760.00.

Muhammad Shuja Qureshi at JS Global Capital said that renewed buying interest propelled the KSE-100 index by 626 points to close above the 44000 level at 44,179. Buying interest in blue chip stocks namely LUCK, ENGRO, OGDC, PPL, HUBC, and MEBL led the rally. However, the market turnover declined to 298 million shares, where WTL (up 2.5 percent), PAEL (up 2.6 percent), PPL (up 3.4 percent), BAFL (up 4.2 percent) and OGDC (up 2.7 percent) were the volume leaders.

BR Automobile Assembler Index surged by 209.33 points or 2.6 percent to close at 8,265.80 points with total turnover of 4.932 million shares.

BR Cement Index gained 86.44 points or 1.79 percent to close at 4,902.44 points with 16.489 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index added 172.79 points or 1.9 percent to close at 9,249.27 points with 42.035 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index closed at 8,283.50 points, up 136.11 points or 1.67 percent with 21.713 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index increased by 85.39 points or 2.14 percent to close at 4,084.23 points with 44.670 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index inched up by 7.76 points or 0.19 percent to close at 3,994.74 points with 51.220 million shares.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that stocks closed bullish in the earnings season led by select blue-chip scrips as investor weigh dropping 5 year CDS, Barclays market weigh on Pakistan Sovereign Bonds and hopes new financing from other bilateral and multilateral agencies after IMF SBA.

He said surging FX reserves and expected fall in CPI inflation amid surge in Pak Rupee played a catalyst role in bullish close.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023