Following the nominations for the slots of Chief Justice of Pakistan and Chief of Army Staff, a bullish trend was witnessed at the Karachi bourse on Thursday. The KSE 100-Index crossed the historic high of 24,000 points amid rising volumes. The KSE-100 index opened at 23,768.35 points and hit 24,204.37 points level during intra-day trading. The index closed at 24,180.49 with a massive gain of 412.14 points or 1.73 percent.
Trading took place in 374 scrips, of which 267 closed in positive, 84 negative and that of 23 remained unchanged.
Samar Iqbal, an analyst of Topline Securities said the market rejoiced the smooth and peaceful transition of both the Army Chief and the Chief Justice and closed on its historic high of 24,180 points level after gaining 1.7 percent.
She said a healthy market participation was also seen with rising volumes. Widespread investors'' interest was seen across the board, especially in cement, textile and banking stocks. Furthermore, successful discovery by OGDC kept investors interest in equities. FCCL remained the volume leader with 18 million shares followed by BOP with a volume of 13 million shares and MLCF 8 million shares.
Meanwhile, Ahsan Mehnati of Arif Habib Corporation said stocks closed all-time high led by oversold stocks across the board after the government announced nomination of next Chief Justice of Supreme Court. Trade remained high amid hopes for announcements on privatisation of SOEs.
He said the ADB loan agreement of $430 million for BISP renewed foreign interest in oil and banking sectors and institutional interest in Nishat Group stocks played a catalyst role in bullish sentiments.
Fauji CementXD was the volume leader with 18.01 million shares gaining Re 0.21 in intra-day trading to close at Rs 13.46. B.O Punjab declined by Re 0.18 to close at Rs 10.41 with 12.70 million shares. Maple Leaf Cement closed at Rs 25.11, falling by Re 0.30 on 8.13 million shares.
Nishat (Chunian) XDXB moved up by Rs 2.21 to close at Rs 57.06 on 7.88 million shares. Nishat Mills Ltd XD gained Rs 4.45 to close at Rs 110.25 on 7.56 million shares. D.G.K. Cement increased by Rs 2.35 to close at Rs 77.29 on 7.44 million shares. P.T.C.L.A closed at Rs 29.93, up by Re 0.42, on 7.424 million shares.
NIB Bank Limited rose by Re 0.06 to close at Rs 2.31 on 5.34 million shares. Pak Elektron Ltd closed at Rs 17.51, gaining Re 0.11 on 5.01 million shares. Telecard Limited lost Re 0.15 to close at Rs 5.92 on 4.53 million shares.
Unilever Foods XD and Nestle Pak. were the top gainers increasing by Rs459.75 and Rs437.22 to close at Rs 9654.75 and Rs 9181.62, respectively. Pak Services and Indus Motor CoXD were the worst losers shedding Rs15.40 and Rs7.24 to close at Rs292.62 and Rs337.77, respectively.