Stocks remained bullish Thursday with the KSE-100 index gaining another 234 points to close at 34,504 points. The benchmark index rallied from Wednesday's 34,269 and was seen hitting the session's high of 34,581 points. Trading turnover ended higher at 270 million shares worth Rs 14.54 billion. Of the total 376 scrips traded, 179 appreciated, 178 depreciated and that of 19 stayed unchanged.
The market capital accumulated to Rs 716 trillion. The outflow of portfolio investment continued as offshore investors sold $55 million positions in the second last session. "Stocks closed higher led by select scrips across-the-board on strong valuations," said Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp.
He said US Fed decision to leave rates unchanged boded well for oil, textile and fertilisers stocks. "Federal cabinet's approval on budget strategy paper, Moody's B3 issuer ratings on sovereign bonds, increase in crude oil prices near to $45 a barrel and speculations in earning announcements session played a catalytic role in the bullish close," the analyst said. Pak Elektron led volumes with 225 million shares. Others to follow were Power cement, Dewan Motors, Byco Petroleum, SNGPL, TRG Pakistan, Bank of Punjab, Dewan Cement, SSGC and OGDCL. Futures trade settled lower at 77 million contracts compared to the previous 83 million.
The day's rally, Hammad Aman of Topline Securities said, was mainly led by banking shares. HBL, UBL and MCB grew between 1 and 2.2 percent. "Disappointing result was announced by PPL which declared EPS of Rs 1.9. This result announcement was below market expectations which resulted in stock to decline by 1.79 percent," he said. HUBC announced EPS of Rs 2.6 which the analyst said was in line with street consensus. It also accompanied cash dividend of Rs 3.5/share which was a surprise and resulted in the stock to close up by 3.02 percent. NBP announced EPS of 1.9/share. The result was in line with expectations. NBP closed up by 1.31 percent.