KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange closed on a positive note on the third consecutive day on the back of continuous buying, mainly by local investors.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index on Friday increased by 398.81 points or 0.64 percent and closed at 62,451.04 points. During the session, the index hit 62,644.38 points intraday high and 61,807.54 points intraday low.

Trading activity remained low as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 590.592 million shares as compared to 676.243 million shares traded on Thursday. The daily traded value on the ready counter declined to Rs 16.844 billion against previous session’s Rs 20.278 billion.

BRIndex100 gained 38.61 points or 0.61 percent to close at 6,397.11 points with total daily turnover of 525.375 million shares.

BRIndex30 added 222.12 points or 0.99 percent to close at 22,770.27 points with total daily trading volumes of 388.318 million shares.

The market capitalization increased by Rs 59 billion to Rs 9.062 trillion. Out of total 359 active scrips, 207 closed in positive and 130 in negative while the value of 22 stocks remained unchanged.

K-Electric was the volume leader with 141.792 million shares and gained Rs 0.50 to close at Rs 5.26 followed by Fauji Foods that inched up by Rs 0.26 to close at Rs 11.14 with 28.270 million shares. WorldCall Telecom closed at Rs 1.41, down Rs 0.01 with 27.871 million shares.

Nestle Pakistan and Rafhan Maize Products Company were the top gainers increasing by Rs 203.00 and Rs 198.00 respectively to close at Rs 8,203.00 and Rs 9,998.00 while Unilever Pakistan Foods and Sapphire Fibres were the top losers declining by Rs 99.00 and Rs 42.58 respectively to close at Rs 21,900.00 and Rs 1,657.05.

A rangebound session was observed on the last trading session of the calendar year 2023, as the index gained to make an intraday high of plus 399 points and intraday low of minus 245 points to close at 62,421 level, up by 0.64 percent.

Major positive contribution to the index came from PPL, UBL, KEL, EFERT, FFC and OGDC, as they cumulatively contributed plus 361 points to the index. On the other hand BAHL, HUBC, MCB, MARI, HBL and TRG lost value to weigh down on the index by minus 233 points.

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 79.91 points or 0.59 percent to close at 13,638.12 points with total turnover of 6.970 million shares.

BR Cement Index increased by 90.29 points or 1.35 percent to close at 6,782.91 points with 19.359 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 15.57 points or 0.1 percent to close at 15,131.37 points with 49.848 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 18.67 points or 0.13 percent to close at 14,222.15 points with 151.869 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index added 87.07 points or 1.52 percent to close at 5,834.21 points with 48.199 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,905.82 points, down 0.25 points or 0.01 percent with 86.666 million shares.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that the PSX witnessed a bull run as investors weigh SBP FX reserves surging by $853 million to $7.8 billion amid financial support from bilateral agencies during the week and approval of $250 million AIIB financing.

He said Pak rupee stability, falling government bond yields and improving external account position played catalyst role in bullish close at PSX.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023