Pakistan Stock Exchange ended the week on a positive note on the back of buying by local and foreign investors in various sectors. BRIndex100 gained 6.37 points or 0.14 percent to close at 4,667.73 points on Friday. BRIndex 100 touched intraday high of 4,699.91 points and intraday low of 4,633.98 points. The volume stood at 180.253 million shares.
BRIndex30 increased by 188.61 points to close at 22,947.44 points with a total volume of 106.391 million shares. The benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 103.62 points to 42,787.19 points. Daily trading volumes stood at 200.089 million shares as compared to 217.124 million shares traded Thursday.
Foreign investors were net buyers of shares worth $14.2 million. The market capitalization decreased by Rs 16 billion to Rs 8.878 trillion. Out of total 383 active scrips, 231 closed in negative, 133 in positive while the value of 19 stocks remained unchanged. Dost Steels was the volume leader with 16.260 million shares. It increased by Re 1.00 to close at Rs 12.11 followed by TRG Pak that gained Rs 0.40 to close at Rs 38.63 with 10.343 million shares. Unilever Foods and Island Textile were the top gainers with Rs 172.00 and Rs 44.51, respectively to close at Rs 6,450.00 and Rs 982.00. Nestle Pakistan and Sapphire Textile were the top losers with Rs 127.33 and Rs 102.49, respectively to close at Rs 12,350.00 and Rs 1,947.41.
BR Commercial Banks Index gained 26.38 points or 0.32 percent to close at 8,352.46 points with a total turnover of 28.652 million shares. BR Cement Index closed at 6,167.32 points, up 26.4 points or 0.43 percent with total volumes of 9.871 million shares. BR Oil and Gas Index lost 25.87 points or 0.52 percent to close at 4,971.31 points with total turnover of 20.572 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,259.08 points, down 0.25 points or 0.02 percent with total turnover of 23.793 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index decreased by 48.87 points or 0.7 percent to close at 6,900.12 points with total turnover of 2.731 million shares.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that the stocks closed higher on institutional interest in select scrips across-the-board amid speculation on renewed foreign inflows after FTSE Global Equity Index Series Asia Pacific announcement on inclusion of PSX stocks in semi annual review. Uncertainty remained over concerns for record trade deficit and global equity volatility amid North Korea missile fire over Japan and London Terror attacks. He said strong sales of cement, oil and fertilizers for August 2017, reports for rising textile exports and surging remittances data played a catalyst role in higher close.
Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said that the market remained volatile, making an intraday high/low of plus 331/ minus 145 points to close at 42,787 level, up 104 points in anticipation of FTSE and S&P rebalancing of PSX stocks from Frontier to Emerging Market. Mixed sentiments were witnessed in the banking sector where HBL (up 3.73 percent) and AKBL (up 0.84 percent) closed in the green zone, while on the flipside MCB (down 2.66 percent), NBP (down 0.40 percent) and BAFL (down 1.66 percent) closed in the red trajectory. In the E&P sector OGDC and PPL announced their results for FY17, where OGDC (down 1.10 percent) posted EPS of Rs 14.83 accompanied by a DPS of Rs 2.0 taking full year DPS to Rs 6.0. Whereas PPL (down 0.40 percent) posted an EPS of Rs 18.10 and DPS of Rs 6. SNGP (down 3.17 percent) and SSGC (down 0.41 percent) from the gas utility lost value to close negative on the back of news that both the companies have rejected the 7.1 percent Unaccounted for Gas (UFG) losses proposed by consultants hired by Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) but agreed on raising the levels from the existing 4.5 percent. Investors' interest was seen in Cements as PIOC (up 1.89 percent), DGKC (up 1.17 percent), MLCF (up 1.14 percent) and LUCK (up 1.10 percent) all closed in the green zone.