KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Friday witnessed bullish trend and closed on strong positive note with healthy gains on the back of aggressive buying by both local and foreign investors coupled with institutional support.

The benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 1,000.35 points or 1.34 percent and closed at 75,878.48 points. During the session, the index hit 75,953.74 points intra-day high, however closed on slightly lower level due to profit taking in some stocks.

Trading activities also improved as total daily volumes on ready counter increased to 523.299 million shares as compared to 410.575 million shares traded on Thursday, while total daily traded value on the ready counter increased to Rs 20.574 billion against previous session’s Rs 14.922 billion.

BRIndex100 added 122.15 points or 1.56 percent to close at 7,957.04 points with total daily turnover of 447.771 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 369.8 points or 1.46 percent to close at 25,700.00 points with total daily trading volumes of 278.598 million shares.

The foreign investors also remained net buyers of shares worth $696,601. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 103 billion to Rs 10.169 trillion. Out of total 433 active scrips, 236 closed in positive and 140 in negative while the value of 57 stocks remained unchanged.

K-Electric was the volume leader with 62.228 million shares and gained Re 0.10 to close at Rs 4.96 followed by Dewan Cement that lost Re 0.12 to close at Rs 10.94 with 31.643 million shares. WorldCall Telecom closed at Rs 1.35, up Re 0.01 with 28.533 million shares.

Sazgar Engineering Works and Hoechst Pakistan were the top gainers increasing by Rs 58.23 and Rs 32.65 respectively to close at Rs 786.14 and Rs 1,400.00 while PIA Holding Company Limited B and Shahmurad Sugar Mills were the top losers declining by Rs 67.20 and Rs 35.37 respectively to close at Rs 775.93 and Rs 406.80.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that positive session was observed at the exchange as the index gained 1.34 percent to close at 75,878 level (up by 1,000 points). This positivity can be attributed to recovery in market where index declined by 1,100 points from start of the week to Thursday’s close.

Major positive contribution to the index came from SYS, HUBC, MEBl, ENGRO, FFC and MCB, as they cumulatively contributed plus 548 points to the index.

BR Automobile Assembler Index increased by 271.64 points or 1.63 percent to close at 16,965.44 points with total turnover of 32.237 million shares.

BR Cement Index gained 70.4 points or 0.93 percent to close at 7,622.35 points with 71.859 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index soared by 232.02 points or 1.15 percent to close at 20,402.17 points with 40.572 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index surged by 359.71 points or 2.04 percent to close at 18,012.87 points with 74.731 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index inched up by 21.68 points or 0.33 percent to close at 6,650.34 points with 20.411 million shares.

BR Tech & Comm Index added 194.92 points or 4.93 percent to close at 4,151.23 points with 103.902 million shares.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that stocks surged across the board ahead of federal budget FY25 on reports of proposed PSDP over Rs 1.22 trillion, GDP growth target at 3.6 percent for FY25 and likely resolve over $2.0 billion CPEC projects and China IPPs dues during PM visit to China next week.

He said expected fall in SBP policy rates amid slash in Government bond rates and upbeat SPI for the week up by meager 0.11 percent and pre-budget speculations on capital market proposals played catalyst role in bullish close.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024