A positive trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange on the second consecutive day on the back of fresh buying by local and foreign investors in various sectors. BRIndex100 gained 40.26 points or 0.98 percent to close at 4,144.50 points on Wednesday. BRIndex-100 touched intraday high of 4,151.19 and intraday low of 4,034.61 points. Volumes stood at 185.952 million shares.
BRIndex30 increased by 159.39 points or 0.81 percent to close at 19,773.97 points with a turnover of 130.742 million shares.
The benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 287.55 points or 0.75 percent to close at 38,792.09 points. Daily trading volumes decreased to 199.322 million shares as compared to 225.117 million shares traded Tuesday.
Foreign investors emerged net buyers of shares worth $1.0 million. The market capitalization increased by Rs 8 billion to Rs 7.933 trillion. Out of total 384 active scrips, 181 closed in positive, 181 in negative while the value of 22 stocks remained unchanged.
TRG was the volume leader with 21.650 million shares. It gained Re 0.25 to close at Rs 24.55 followed by Unity Foods that inched up by Re 0.05 to close at Rs 26.52 with 11.338 million shares.
Archroma Pak and Mari Petroleum were the top gainers with Rs 21.85 and Rs 18.61, respectively to close at Rs 488.10 and Rs 1,426.20. Island Textile and Bata Pak were the top losers with Rs 96.60 and Rs 87.50, respectively to close at Rs 1,835.40 and Rs 1,662.50.
BR Commercial Banks Index increased by 119.06 points or 1.46 percent to close at 8,248.09 points with total turnover of 19.918 million shares.
BR Cement Index surged by 71.85 points or 1.83 percent to close at 4,002.50 points with 22.968 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index gained 21.58 points or 0.42 percent to close at 5,128.04 points with 7.045 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,098.63 points, up 21.3 points or 1.98 percent with 34.712 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 20.22 points or 0.37 percent to close at 5,504.38 points with 9.375 million shares.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that Pakistan equities witnessed a volatile session where the index traded in wide range of 37,897-38,826 (929 points) as investors anxiously await Pakistan's entry into the IMF program. Further, with the IMF's downward revision of Pakistan's key economic indicators in its recent World Economic Outlook (WEO) report, investors became skeptical about corporate earnings going forward.
Later, in the second half, financial sector led the rally where the benchmark index closed with plus 287 points (or 0.75 percent) with MCB and UBL up 3 percent and up 4 percent respectively.
Autos continued to remain under pressure where INDU, PSMC and HCAR closed down 4.8 percent, 5 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively as condition of being a filer to purchase new vehicles took its toll on the sector.