Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday witnessed a healthy buying, mainly by local investors and institutions on the back of Opec decision to cut production and increasing oil prices in the international market. The benchmark KSE-100 index increased by 284.99 points and closed at 42,907.36 points. However, foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $8.6 million withdrawing their investment from Pakistani bourse.
Trading activity also improved significantly as the daily trading volumes on the ready counter increased to 504.436 million shares as compared to 394.186 million shares traded Wednesday. The market capitalisation surged by Rs 43 billion to Rs 8.739 trillion. Out of total 425 active scrips, 217 closed in negative, 196 in positive while the value of 12 stocks remained unchanged.
Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 40.701 million shares, however it declined by Rs 0.87 to close at Rs 18.64 followed by Pace (Pak) that lost Rs 0.23 to close at Rs 12.93 with 20.588 million shares. K-Electric closed at Rs 9.18, down Rs 0.03 with 20.400 million shares. Mari Petroleum and Philip Morris Pak were the top gainers with Rs 52.45 and Rs 49.83, respectively to close at Rs 1101.63 and Rs 2243.38. Wyeth Pak and Island Textile were the top losers with Rs 123.20 and Rs 58.15, respectively to close at Rs 4,119.80 and Rs 1,110.00.
Nabeel Haroon at JS Global Capital said positivity prevailed in the market as the index rallied around 285 points. The E&P sector led the gains in the market as Opec, in a surprise move, agreed to their first production cut since 2008. The E&P sector closed 4.34 percent higher from its previous day close, as crude oil prices surged to trade comfortably above $49.bbl level. POL and PPL were major movers of the said sector as they gained to close near their respective upper circuit. Banking sector lost most of its intra-day gain, as CPI number for the month of November 2016 clocked in at 3.8 percent on year-on-year basis. An analyst at Global Securities said that the local bourse opened on a highly optimistic note majorly owing to Opec deal of cut in oil production to 32.5 million barrel per day. As a result of the Opec decision the E&P sector enjoyed a rally.