Fresh buying on attractive levels supported Pakistan Stock Exchange to close in positive Friday. The benchmark KSE-100 index again crossed 44,000 psychological level on the last trading day of the week. The index traded between 44,461.46 points intra-day high and 43,694.62 points intra-day low levels. On the back of late buying by local and foreign investors, the index closed at 44,337.44 points, with a net increase of 553.89 points.
However, trading activity remained thin, as daily volume on the ready counter decreased to 112.138 million shares as compared to 125.518 million shares traded Thursday. The market capitalization increased by Rs 85 billion to Rs 9.109 trillion. Out of total 340 active scrips, 240 closed in positive, only 83 in negative while the value of 17 stocks remained unchanged. Foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $0.5 million.
Silk Bank was the volume leader with 8.307 million shares. It closed at Rs 1.49, up Rs 0.01 followed by Power Cement that gained Rs 0.18 to close at Rs 12.15 with 8.214 million shares. K-Electric lost Rs 0.20 to close at Rs 6.59 with 8.159 million shares. Wyeth Pak and Sanofi-Aventis were the top gainers with Rs 51.48 and Rs 45.33, respectively to close at Rs 2,241.00 and Rs 1,718.33. Agriautos Industries and Pakistan International Container Terminal were the top losers with Rs 17.70 and Rs 10.00, respectively to close at Rs 367.30 and Rs 321.00.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that the stocks turned bullish as investors weighed SECP chief''s advice to rescue amid political uncertainty. He said surging global crude oil prices, renewed foreign inflows and PM rejection of resignation call challenging JIT report played a catalyst role in positive close.
Arhum Ghous at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 index remained lackluster during the day as the index traded between an intraday high of plus 683 points and low of minus 88 points to close at 44,337 level, up 554 points. Substantial recovery was witnessed during the last hour of the session, as value-seeking investors started accumulating MSCI stocks, which led the market to enter into the green zone. Commercial banking sector contributed 156 points to the market as heavyweights including, MCB (up 0.90 percent), NBP (up 1.72 percent) and HBL (up 1.28 percent) closed in the green zone. PSMC (down 1.02 percent), HCAR (down 1.04 percent) and INDU (down 1.56 percent) from the auto sector shed points on account of the negative impact from the revision of Customs values of replacement auto parts. OGDC (up 0.70 percent), POL (up 1.51 percent) and PPL (up 1.59 percent) were gainers from the E&P sector. Despite of political uncertainty market has stabilized to a certain level due to attractive prices of value stocks.