KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Monday closed on a positive note on the back of healthy buying, mainly in banking and refinery sectors.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index crossed 46,000 psychological level to close at 46,054.81 points, with net increase of 134.08 points or 0.29 percent. The index hit 46,195.71 points intraday high and 45,872.67 points intraday low.

Trading activity remained low as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 299.076 million shares as compared to 504.550 million shares traded last Friday.

The daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 8.139 billion against previous session’s Rs 12.012 billion. BRIndex100 gained 14.73 points or 0.32 percent to close at 4,658.01 points with total daily turnover of 260.959 million shares.

BRIndex30 inched up by 4.31 points or 0.03 percent to close at 16,113.64 points with total daily trading volumes of 188.353 million shares.

Foreign investors also remained net buyers of shares worth $899,076. The market capitalization increased by Rs 26 to Rs 6.989 trillion. Out of total 337 active scrips, 175 closed in negative and 147 in positive while the value of 15 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 35.880 million shares however lost Rs 0.05 to close at Rs 1.41 followed by K-Electric that gained Rs 0.12 to close at Rs 2.15 with 32.402 million shares.

Unity Foods closed at Rs 27.40, up Rs 0.58 with 31.484 million shares. Nestle Pakistan and Bhanero Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 100.00 and Rs 69.00 respectively to close at Rs 6800.00 and Rs 989.00 while Al-Abbas Sugar and Siemens Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 29.40 and Rs 18.19 respectively to close at Rs 480.60 and Rs 701.50.

Muhammad Shuja Qureshi at JS Global Capital said that the market posted a gain of 134 points to close above the 46,000 level at 46,055. Once again, Banking sector led the rally whereas refinery sector also bounced back to post decent gains. SHEL closed limit up while SNGP and SSGC were up in anticipation of gas price increase.

The market turnover dropped to 299 million shares, where WTL (down 3.4 percent), KEL (up 5.9 percent), UNITY (up 2.2 percent), HASCOL (up 2.5 percent) and CNERGY (down 0.6 percent) were the volume leaders.

BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 44.44 points or 0.52 percent to close at 8,514.36 points with total turnover of 5.671 million shares.

BR Cement Index lost 25.71 points or 0.52 percent to close at 4,959.98 points with 5.235 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index increased by 124.17 points or 1.2 percent to close at 10,450.09 points with 28.589 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index gained 37.55 points or 0.44 percent to close at 8,623.59 points with 39.598 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index inched up by 2.1 points or 0.05 percent to close at 4,153.65 points with 34.378 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,980.63 points, down 22.63 points or 0.57 percent with 50.520 million shares.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that stocks closed higher ahead of major earning announcements due this week. He said speculations on SBP policy announcement on July 31, easing political noise and surging FX reserves played a catalytic role in bullish close.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023