Followed by record trading volume, the Karachi share market on Thursday closed on positive note. The benchmark KSE-100 index touched fresh peak of 21,682.06 points during the intraday trading. However, the index could not sustain this level and closed at 21,590.66 points, up by 149.54 points.
Major activity was witnessed in the low-priced scrips and overall turnover surged to seven years'' high level of 637.522 million shares compared to 484.563 million a day earlier. "Abnormal activity in low-priced shares caused volumes to reach 7 years high of over 637 million shares in a day," said Samar Iqbal Senior Equity Dealer at Topline.
Though value traded remained close to Rs 13 billion but around 84 million shares trading was registered in BOP Right shares, which is traded close to Rs 4.00 per share resulted in high turnover in number of shares, she added. "OGDC and PSO share prices rose in anticipation that resolution of energy issue will help these companies thereby causing index to reach all-time high," Samar said. Out of 402 active scrips, 258 scrips went up, 122 went down, while that of 22 scrips remained unchanged. Market capitalisation posted an increase of Rs 38 billion to Rs 5.244 trillion from Rs 5.206 trillion.
All the Top Ten scrips on the volume leaders'' list closed in positive territory. B.O.P (Right) was the volume leader with trading volume of 83.53 million shares. It gained Re 1 to close at Rs 4.16 per share. P.T.C.L.A up by Re 0.69 to close at Rs 21.60 on 45.89 million shares. WorldCall Telecom closed at Rs 3.40, up by Re 0.23 on 32.22 million shares. Telecard Limited gained Re 0.49 to Rs 5.94 on 31.46 million shares.
With an increase of Re 1, Bank of Punjab closed at Rs 13.80 on some 22.24 million shares. Japan Power went up by Re 0.66 to Rs 3.83 on 22 million shares. Southern Electric and NIB Bank Limited rose by Re 0.72 and Re 0.23 to close at Rs 3.89 and Rs 2.65, respectively on 21.6 million and 21 million shares. K.E.S.C closed at Rs 7.08, up by Re 0.38, on 20.6 million shares. Jah. Sidd. Co gained Re 1 to Rs 13.18 on some 19.88 million shares.
Wyeth Pak Ltd and Shezan Inter were the top gainers with share prices increasing by Rs 67.00 and Rs 31.08 to close at Rs 1,417.00 and Rs 652.78 respectively. While Nestle Pak and Indus Dyeing were the worst losers declining by Rs 58.00 and Rs 27.75 to close at Rs 6,542.00 and Rs 530.00, respectively. Commenting on the market situation, Ahsan Mehanti an analyst at Arif Habib said Pakistan stocks closed bullish in the pre-budget rally led by oil stocks on strong valuations and renewed hopes for ease in circular debt issues in Pakistan energy sector.
Investors are hopeful that energy crisis will ease in coming days after new government''s plan to issue Rs 500 billion T-Bills to deal with crises as first priority, he added. Institutional interest was witnessed in stocks across the board amid higher trades in second and third tier stocks amid hopes for lower CPI inflation for May 2013, Mehanti said. He said renewed foreign interest in bluechip stocks and recovery in global stocks played a catalyst role in bullish sentiments at KSE amid concerns for political uncertainty.