Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday witnessed another bullish day on the back of healthy buying mainly in banking and fertilizer sectors. The benchmark KSE-100 index rose by 504.16 points to close at the highest-ever level of 47,424.63 points. Trading activity also improved as the daily trading volumes increased to 273.091 million shares as compared to 198.613 million shares traded Tuesday.
The market capitalisation increased by Rs 106 billion to Rs 9.516 trillion. Out of total 407 active scrips, 231 closed in positive, 158 in negative while the value of 18 stocks remained unchanged. K-Electric was the volume leader with 21.979 million shares. It gained Rs 0.05 to close at Rs 9.20 followed by Dewan Cement that increased by Rs 1.78 to close at Rs 39.01 with 18.903 million shares. Bank of Punjab lost Rs 0.02 to close at Rs 17.56 with 13.429 million shares.
Nestle Pakistan and Sanofi-Aventis were the top gainers with Rs 433.20 and Rs 123.37, respectively to close at Rs 9,145.71 and Rs 2,590.87. Wyeth Pak and Millat Tractors were the top losers with Rs 110.24 and Rs 16.47, respectively to close at Rs 4,605.76 and Rs 872.64.
An analyst at Global Securities said the market once again opened with bullish momentum, gaining over 300 points soon after the opening bell. The KSE-100 index continued to move upwards for majority of the session; however, it found considerable resistance at the 47,500 level before settling at 47,425 points, up 504 points by day''s end. The banking sector emerged as the top contributor towards the rally with MCB (+4.34 percent), HBL (+1.14 percent) and UBL (+1.54 percent) contributing 119 points likely on anticipation towards year-end earnings and payouts. Moreover, both the cement and the fertilizer sector witnessed an uptrend likely on expectation of healthy off-take during the December 2016 period. KEL (+0.54 percent) and DCL (+4.78 percent) topped the volumes chart with a turnover of 22 million and 19 million shares, respectively, with the latter likely garnering investors'' attention over potential sale of its cement plant.