KARACHI: A bullish trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange on the second consecutive day on the back of healthy buying at low levels, Thursday.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index surged by 1,188.61 points or 1.95 percent and crossed 62,052.24 psychological level to close at 62,052.24 points. The index hit 62,750.78 points intra-day high however closed at lower level due to profit taking in some stocks.

Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on ready counter increased to 676.243 million shares as compared to 669.356 million shares traded on Wednesday. The daily traded value on the ready counter increased to Rs 20.278 billion against previous session’s Rs 16.115 billion.

BRIndex100 added 116.56 points or 1.87 percent to close at 6,358.50 points with total daily turnover of 585.385 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 371.55 points or 1.68 percent to close at 22,548.15 points with total daily trading volumes of 397.482 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained on the selling side and withdrew $2.884 million from the equity market. The market capitalization increased by Rs 187 billion to Rs 9.003 trillion. Out of total 382 active scrips, 283 closed in positive and only 83 in negative while the value of 16 stocks remained unchanged.

K-Electric was the volume leader with 62.885 million shares however lost Rs 0.13 to close at Rs 4.76 followed by WorldCall Telecom that closed at Rs 1.42, down Rs 0.01 with 46.188 million shares. Fauji Foods declined by Rs 0.37 to close at Rs 10.88 with 43.053 million shares.

Unilever Pakistan Foods and Nestle Pakistan were the top gainers increasing by Rs 999.00 and Rs 200.00, respectively to close at Rs 21,999.00 and Rs 8,000.00 while Faisal Spinning Mills and Pak Suzuki Motor Company were the top losers declining by Rs 20.75 and Rs 17.33 respectively to close at Rs 340.00 and Rs 562.36.

Mubashir Anis Naviwala at JS Global Capital said that the market remained upbeat and followed the sharp recovery witnessed on Wednesday where the KSE-100 index gained 1,189 points to close at the 62,052 level.

Traded volume stood at 676 million shares where KEL (down 2.7 percent), WTL (down 0.7 percent), FFL (down 3.3 percent), AKBL (up 5.8 percent) and CNERGY (down 2.7 percent) were the volume leaders.

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 45.07 points or 0.33 percent to close at 13,558.21 points with total turnover of 9.516 million shares.

BR Cement Index surged by 201.82 points or 3.11 percent to close at 6,692.62 points with 39.530 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index increased by 372.41 points or 2.52 percent to close at 15,146.94 points with 91.752 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index added 351.12 points or 2.53 percent to close at 14,203.48 points with 73.324 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index gained 116.6 points or 2.07 percent to close at 5,747.14 points with 44.577 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,906.07 points, down 14.83 points or 0.38 percent with 112.357 million shares.

“For second consecutive session, bullish sentiment prevailed in the stock market, propelling the index by 1,188 points or 1.95 percent, ultimately settling at 62,052”, an analyst at Topline Securities said.

This positive momentum spurred significant buying interest across various sectors, particularly in Power, Banks, Oil & Gas, and Cement. Key contributors to the upward trend included HUBC, BAHL, MARI, LUCK, and OGDC, collectively contributing plus 439 points to the index. Conversely, SYS, KEL, and EFUG collectively incurred a loss of 57 points.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023