KARACHI: A bullish trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange on Friday on the back of aggressive buying, mainly in auto sector by both local and foreign investors coupled with institutional support.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index surged by 366.72 points or 0.73 percent and closed at 50,731.87 points. The index hit 50,952.67 points intraday high, however closed at slightly lower level due to profit-taking in some stocks.

Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on ready counter increased to 430.052 million shares as compared to 427.476 million shares traded on Thursday. The daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 14.611 billion against previous session’s Rs 14.593 billion.

BRIndex100 added 54.38 points or 1.07 percent to close at 5,160.04 points with total daily turnover of 390.261 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 202.7 points or 1.13 percent to close at 18,196.49 points with daily trading volumes of 262.008 million shares.

Foreign investors also remained net buyers of shares worth $807,906. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 14 billion to Rs 7.379 trillion. Out of total 350 active scrips, 188 closed in positive and 145 in negative while the value of 17 stocks remained unchanged.

Pak Refinery was the volume leader with 42.467 million shares and gained Rs 0.66 to close at Rs 18.13 followed by K-Electric that closed at Rs 3.26, down Rs 0.11 with 35.749 million shares. WorldCall Telecom closed at the previous session’s closing level of Rs 1.28 without any change with 31.023 million shares.

Pak Hotels and Murree Brewery were the top gainers increasing by Rs 35.72 and Rs 18.67 respectively to close at Rs 512.25 and Rs 267.66 while Nestle Pakistan and Pak Tobacco were the top losers declining by Rs 190.00 and Rs 37.60 respectively to close at Rs 7200.00 and Rs 737.33.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that the KSE-100 Index extended its gain as good corporate earnings announcements in the ongoing result session continue to garner investor interest in the market. The KSE-100 Index gained 0.73 percent to close 50,732 level. T-Bill auction in the week earlier where yields declined in the range of 30bps to 45bps, also provided stimulus to the market.

PSO and MUREB announced their respective first quarter FY24 result announcement; PSO posted an EPS of Rs Rs 46.62 for the quarter which was higher than the industry expectation and MUREB announced an EPS of Rs 21.35 (up by 96 percent QoQ basis) along with an interim cash dividend of Rs 7.5 following which the scrip touched its upper circuit during the trading session.

Major positive contribution to the index came from HUBC, FFC, BAHL, EFERT and HBL, as they cumulatively contributed plus 267 points to the index. On the other hand PAKT, UNITY, OGDC, NESTLE and KEL lost value to weigh down on the index by minus 62 points.

BR Automobile Assembler Index increased by 110.54 points or 1.11 percent to close at 10,099.09 points with total turnover of 10.934 million shares.

BR Cement Index gained 44.32 points or 0.84 percent to close at 5,304.81 points with 35.762 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index added 127.52 points or 1.08 percent to close at 11,886.23 points with 34.333 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index surged by 310.08 points or 2.95 percent to close at 10,838.96 points with 53.984 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index lost 16.55 points or 0.35 percent to close at 4,683.92 points with 47.524 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index inched up by 30.39 points or 0.83 percent to close at 3,673.52 points with 61.404 million shares.

Muhammad Shuja Qureshi at JS Global Capital said positive momentum continued in the market and the KSE-100 Index closed at 50,732, up by 367 points. Once again, Auto Sector stole the show with HCAR (up 7.5 percent), PSMC (up 7.5 percent), and SAZEW (up 7.5 percent) closing at their respective upper locks.

However, profit taking was witnessed in E&P stocks.

The market turnover increased to 429 million shares, where PRL (up 3.8 percent), KEL (down 3.3 percent), WTL (zero percent), GGL (up 4.6 percent), and BOP (up 5.7 percent) were the volume leaders.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023