Pakistan Stock Exchange Friday ended on a positive note on the back of select buying in various sectors. BRIndex100 gained 16.44 points or 0.36 percent to close at 4,591.01 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,597.11 and intraday low of 4,572.77 points. Volumes stood at 186.007 million shares. BRIndex30 increased by 207.68 points or 0.9 percent to close at 23,242.65 points with a turnover of 106.135 million shares.
The benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 174.73 points to close at 42,505.05 points. Trading activity also remained low as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 203.027 million shares as compared to 284.514 million shares traded Thursday. Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $3.6 million. The market capitalization increased by Rs 45 billion to Rs 8.744 trillion. Out of total 375 active scrips, 198 closed in positive, 158 in negative while the value of 19 stocks remained unchanged.
Engro Polymer was the volume leader with 24.988 million shares. However, it lost Re 0.34 to close at Rs 35.20 followed by D.S. Ind. Limited that declined by Re 1.00 to close at Rs 4.51 with 17.945 million shares. Pak Tobacco and Island Textile were the top gainers with Rs 73.39 and Rs 40.25, respectively to close at Rs 2,284.99 and Rs 1,325.00. Rafhan Maize and Sanofi-Aventis were the top losers with Rs 409.00 and Rs 49.23, respectively to close at Rs 7,790.00 and Rs 1,050.66.
BR Commercial Banks Index inched up by 1.42 points or 0.02 percent to close at 8,775.98 points with total turnover of 18.077 million shares. BR Cement Index lost 36.33 points or 0.75 percent to close at 4,797.55 points with 9.724 million shares. BR Oil and Gas Index gained 29.89 points or 0.57 percent to close at 5,276.34 points with 7.631 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,274.89 points, up 6.52 points or 0.51 percent with 12.585 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index increased by 48.42 points or 0.8 percent to close at 6,085.44 points with 5.823 million shares.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market had a mixed day, starting on a negative note with minus 96 points in the first session but soon turned positive and the second session saw beginning with plus 100 points. UBL''s conference call to explain the financial implications and outlook on pension liability calmed some raw nerves and the stock turned green by the end of session. Cement sector was a bit of dampener for the market where most of the cement scrips were down. Refinery sector also failed to maintain interest due to expectation of poor results. Improvement in Fertilizer sector scrips managed to pull the index green in the end.
Sectors contributing to the increase include Fertilizer (up 120 points), O&GMCs (up 31 points), Tobacco (up 19 points), E&P (up 15 points) and Power (up 14 points). Scripts that contributed positively include ENGRO (up 50 points), FFC (up 44 points), EFERT (up 25 points), MCB (up 24 points) and PSO (up 23 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (down 66 points), LUCK (down 14 points), PIBTL (down 10 points), SEARL (down 8 points) and POL (down 6 points).