KARACHI: Despite foreign selling, Pakistan Stock Exchange on Friday witnessed a positive trend on the back of healthy buying by local investors coupled with institutional support.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index gained 103.46 points or 0.23 percent and closed at 45,753.52 points. The index crossed 46,000 points psychological level to hit 46,093.01 points intraday high, however profit taking in some stocks minimized the intraday gains.

Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on ready counter increased to 222.531 million shares as compared to 138.172 million shares traded on Thursday. The daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 11.056 billion against previous session’s Rs 2.778 billion.

BRIndex100 inched up by 11.75 points or 0.26 percent to close at 4,582.90 points with daily turnover of 203.618 million shares.

BRIndex30 added 72.81 points or 0.45 percent to close at 16,233.74 points with total daily trading volumes of 109.998 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained on the selling side and withdrew $7.050 million from the local equity market. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 12 billion to Rs 6.772 trillion. Out of total 319 active scrips, 176 closed in positive and 109 in negative while the value of 34 stocks remained unchanged.

MCB Bank was the volume leader with 27.208 million shares however lost Rs 0.95 to close at Rs 125.70 followed by Maple Leaf Cement that gained Rs 0.89 to close at Rs 29.42 with 24.656 million shares. Nishat Chunian Power closed at Rs 18.82, down Rs 0.84 with 13.979 million shares.

Pak Services and Mehmood Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 49.98 and Rs 40.50 respectively to close at Rs 719.98 and Rs 580.50 while Bata Pak and Lucky Core Industries were the top losers declining by Rs 37.98 and Rs 22.41 respectively to close at Rs 1662.02 and Rs 602.80.

Mubashir Anis Naviwala at JS Global Capital said that positive activity was witnessed at the bourse as the KSE-100 Index closed at 45,753, gaining 103 points. Good participation was seen in E&P, Cement and Banking sectors.

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 32.92 points or 0.37 percent to close at 8,964.43 points with total turnover of 5.537 million shares.

BR Cement Index surged by 164.83 points or 3.63 percent to close at 4,711.51 points with 39.122 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index declined by 119.54 points or 1.11 percent to close at 10,648.56 points with 44.072 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index increased by 88.86 points or 1.01 percent to close at 8,904.49 points with 27.567 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index inched up by 5.86 points or 0.14 percent to close at 4,278.08 points with 20.412 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index gained 7.72 points or 0.21 percent to close at 3,718.07 points with 20.743 million shares.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that the market largely traded in the positive zone during the trading session, which can be attributed to State Bank of Pakistan maintaining its policy rate at 22 percent against market expectation of hike given high inflationary environment. However, some profit taking was observed at the end of trading session as index finally settled at 45,754 level, up by 0.23 percent.

LUCK, HUBC, PSEL, CHCC and DGKC cumulatively contributed 161 points to the index. On the flip side UBL, FFC, MEBL, BAFL and HBL lost value to weigh down on the index by 120 points.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023