KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Tuesday witnessed a bullish trend with increasing trading activity on the back of aggressive buying by local and foreign investors coupled with institutional support.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index increased by 293.63 points or 0.51 percent and closed at 57,371.59 points. The index hit 57,691.22 points intraday high, however closed at lower level due to profit-taking in some stocks.

Trading activity also improved significantly as daily volumes on ready counter increased to 1,012.258 million as compared to 718.285 million shares traded on Monday. The daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 19.338 billion against previous session’s Rs 16.686 billion.

BRIndex100 gained 27.93 points or 0.48 percent to close at 5,848.97 points with total daily turnover of 893.074 million shares.

BRIndex30 added 79.43 points or 0.39 percent to close at 20,678.89 points with total daily trading volumes of 666.658 million shares.

Foreign investors also remained net buyers of shares worth $895,037. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 27 billion to Rs 8.322 trillion. Out of total 390 active scrips, 231 closed in positive and 143 in negative while the value of 16 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 254.276 million shares and gained Rs 0.05 to close at Rs 1.67 followed by K-Electric that closed at Rs 3.51, down Rs 0.04 with 63.355 million shares. Hum Network inched up by Rs 0.32 to close at Rs 7.99 with 38.044 million shares.

Unilever Foods and Rafhan Maize were the top gainers increasing by Rs 499.85 and Rs 207.16 respectively to close at Rs 23000.00 and Rs 10550.00 while Colgate Palmolive and Bata Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 34.71 and Rs 32.44 respectively to close at Rs 1648.17 and Rs 1656.56.

Mohammed Waqar Iqbal at JS Global Capital said a rangebound activity continued as investors preferred to book profits. Total traded volume stood at 1,012 million shares where WTL (up 3.1 percent), KEL (down 1.1 percent), HUMNL (up 4.2 percent), FFL (down 6.1 percent) and SILK (up 12 percent) were the volume leaders.

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 10.67 points or 0.09 percent to close at 12,294.37 points with total turnover of 7.048 million shares.

BR Cement Index added 48.89 points or 0.81 percent to close at 6,094.74 points with 35.906 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index increased by 157.93 points or 1.2 percent to close at 13,265.75 points with 87.629 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index surged by 256.96 points or 1.9 percent to close at 13,787.84 points with 78.409 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index fell by 24.0 points or 0.46 percent to close at 5,233.80 points with 40.800 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,948.37 points, up 1.36 points or 0.03 percent with 374.055 million shares.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that Pakistan’s stock market continued its upward trajectory, gaining 293 points or 0.51 percent to close at 57,371 level. This positive momentum was driven by the tentative scheduling of the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for December 07 to approve the Staff-Level Agreement (SLA) with Pakistan. Additionally, Pakistan’s Current Account Deficit (CAD) stood at $74 million in October 2023, compared to $46 million in September 2023.

Throughout the day, the Power, Banks, Fertilizer, and Cement sectors made positive contributions, with HUBC, UBL, FFBL, LUCK, and BAHL collectively adding plus 181 points to the index. Conversely, OGDC, COLG, and PPL collectively caused a loss of 68 points.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023