KARACHI: Despite foreign selling, Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday witnessed a bullish trend on the back of aggressive buying, mainly by local investors.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index increased by 149.19 points or 0.29 percent and closed at 51,177.13 points. The index hit 51,483.85 points intraday high, however closed on lower level due to profit-taking in some stocks.

Trading activity also improved as total daily volumes on ready counter increased to 427.393 million shares as compared to 321.403 million shares traded on Tuesday while total daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 15.509 billion against previous session’s Rs 11.091 billion.

BRIndex100 inched up by 18.07 points or 0.35 percent to close at 5,194.70 points with total daily turnover of 374.959 million shares.

BRIndex30 gained 41.4 points or 0.23 to close at 18,348.85 points with total daily trading volumes of 261.143 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained on the selling side and withdrew $4.279 million from the local equity market. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 32 billion to Rs 7.447 trillion. Out of total 351 active scrips, 175 closed in positive and 160 in negative while the value of 16 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 80.693 million shares and gained Rs 0.11 to close at Rs 1.38 followed by Bank of Punjab that inched up by Rs 0.21 to close at Rs 4.36 with 22.478 million shares. Fauji Cement increased by Rs 0.93 to close at Rs 13.59 with 21.267 million shares.

Nestle Pakistan and Sanofi-Aventis were the top gainers increasing by Rs 100.00 and Rs 60.67 respectively to close at Rs 7300.00 and Rs 869.61 while Unilever Foods and Bhanero Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 1000.00 and Rs 34.00 respectively to close at Rs 21000.00 and Rs 925.00.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that the Pakistan equities market wrapped up its trading session at 51,177, marking a 149-point increase, equivalent to 0.29 percent.

The bullish sentiment, influenced by the results in the banking sector, played a significant role in creating this positive atmosphere. In addition, investors exercised caution in anticipation of the forthcoming announcement of the central bank’s policy rate decision, scheduled for next week. Furthermore, market participants are closely observing the impending evaluation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s standby arrangement (SBA).

Key sectors like Banks, Oil & Gas, IT, and Cement contributed towards positive closing. Moreover, SYS, BAHL, PSO, FCCL, and DGKC collectively added 262 points to the market’s overall performance. On the contrary, FFC, ENGRO, and EFERT collectively experienced a loss of 140 points.

BR Automobile Assembler Index surged by 153.57 points or 1.49 percent to close at 10,432.06 points with total turnover of 7.814 million shares.

BR Cement Index increased by 76.95 points or 1.45 percent to close at 5,380.27 points with 47.876 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index gained 85.62 points or 0.72 percent to close at 11,975.94 points with 61.383 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 7.89 points or 0.07 percent to close at 10,914.74 points with 32.995 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 4,765.27 points, up 1.25 points or 0.03 percent with 49.992 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index added 90.04 points or 2.46 percent to close at 3,744.79 points with 98.693 million shares.

“Another volatile session ended with KSE-100 gaining 149 points to close at 51,177,” Muhammad Shuja Qureshi at JS Global Capital said.

Cement stocks posted gains as FCCL (up 7.3 percent) reported strong first quarter FY24 results. Other notable gainers were SYS (up 4.2 percent), PSO (up 5.2 percent), HCAR (up 4.2 percent), SAZEW (up 7.5 percent) and BAHL (up 7.5 percent) with the latter announcing stellar third quarter results and an interim cash dividend of Rs 4.5/share.

Turnover increased to 427 million shares, where WTL (up 8.7 percent), BOP (up 5.1 percent), FCCL (up 7.3 percent), OGDC (down 0.2 percent) and KEL (up 0.3 percent) were the volume leaders.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023