Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday witnessed a bullish trend on the first day of the week on the back of select buying, mainly by local investors. BRIndex100 gained 29.51 points or 0.64 percent to close at 4,620.52 points. BRIndex-100 touched intraday high of 4,624.14 and intraday low of 4,590.35 points. Volumes stood at 142.784 million shares. BRIndex30 inched up by 3.18 points or 0.01 percent to close at 23,245.83 points with a turnover of 83.453 million shares.
The benchmark KSE-100 index increased by 303.61 points to close at 42,808.66 points. Daily trading volumes stood at 153.814 million shares as compared to 203.027 million shares traded Friday. Foreign investors however remained net sellers and withdrew $2.5 million from the Pakistan''s capital market. The market capitalization increased by Rs 19 billion to Rs 8.763 trillion. Out of total 375 active scrips, 206 closed in positive, 160 in negative while the value of 9 stocks remained unchanged.
Trust Inv. Bank was the volume leader with 11.077 million shares. It gained Re 0.29 to close at Rs 2.70 followed by Pak Elektron Rs 1.10 to close at Rs 40.62 with 9.975 million shares.
Rafhan Maize and Indus Motor Co were the top gainers with Rs 109.00 and Rs 70.48, respectively to close at Rs 7,899.00 and Rs 1,480.19. Nestle Pakistan and Unilever Foods were the top losers with Rs 399.99 and Rs 250.00, respectively to close at Rs 10,200.00 and Rs 7,600.00.
BR Commercial Banks Index increased by 54.19 points or 0.62 percent to close at 8,830.17 points with total turnover of 11.299 million shares.
BR Cement Index surged by 118.52 points or 2.47 percent to close at 4,916.07 points with 15.643 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index gained 28.39 points or 0.54 percent to close at 5,304.73 points with 3.829 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,277.59 points, up 2.7 points or 0.21 percent with 10.596 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index lost 21.97 points or 0.36 percent to close at 6,063.47 points with 2.888 million shares.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the activity at KSE100 index went slow as compared to previous sessions. The market took a cautious start with plus 60 points and stayed wayward between red and green at the beginning of the session. Steel sector scrips, especially rolled product manufacturers fared well where ASTL and MUGHAL were seen trading at and close to upper circuits.
There were no financial results due on Monday, but even the better prospects of some of the results to be announced in the coming days failed to gain interest of investors. Selling activity was observed in NBP and other mid-tier banking sector scrips such as BAFL, AKBL, BOP etc. Cement sector however, performed well, where most of the scrips were seen trading in green.
Scrips that contributed positively include ENGRO (up 51 points), LUCK (up 38 points), DAWH (up 28 points), INDU (up 20 points) and UBL (up 18 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include NESTLE (down 19 points), PAKT (down 9 points), SHFA (down 8 points), NBP (down 7 points) and PIBTL (down 6 points).