Pakistan Stock Exchange Tuesday remained under pressure for most of the time, however it managed to close on a positive note due to select buying at the fag end. BRIndex100 gained 5.62 points or 0.16 percent to close at 3,444.63 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 3,455.67 and intraday low of 3,394.30 points. Volumes stood at 133.008 million shares.
BRIndex30 closed at 17,669.80 points, up 68.16 points or 0.39 percent with a turnover of 98.508 million shares.
The KSE-100 Index inched up by 13.67 points to close at 32,972.02 points. Trading activity improved significantly as daily volumes on the ready counter increased to 138.726 million shares as compared to 69.191 million shares traded Monday.
Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $0.1 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 9 billion to Rs 6.681 trillion. Out of total active scrips, 149 closed in negative, 148 in positive while the value of 19 stocks remained unchanged.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 20.303 million shares. However, it lost Re 0.10 to close at Rs 3.71 followed by Maple Leaf that gained Re 0.05 to close at Rs 21.07 with 14.025 million shares. Archroma Pak and Service Ind were the top gainers with Rs 15.00 and Rs 14.85, respectively to close at Rs 480.00 and Rs 469.85. Colgate Palmolive and Khyber Textile were the top losers with Rs 49.50 and Rs 22.80, respectively to close at Rs 2,000.00 and Rs 433.20.
BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 5.87 points or 0.11 percent to close at 5,476.71 points with total turnover of 1.532 million shares.
BR Cement Index increased by 40.7 points or 1.44 percent to close at 2,867.47 points with 27.089 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index gained 36.15 points or 0.45 percent to close at 7,990.27 points with 14.280 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 14.17 points or 0.3 percent to close at 4,683.09 points with 22.224 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index decreased by 32.45 points or 0.85 percent to close at 3,769.49 points with 9.758 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 719.14 points, up 4.22 points or 0.59 percent with 15.126 million shares.
Maaz Mulla, an analyst at JS Global Capital said that the day started with the same sentiment as the last closing session where the market played in the red region in the first half making an intraday low of minus 354 points, likelihood of the redemptions by mutual funds. However, a rumor of no change in the interest rate flowed into the market which made it turn green for some hours and KSE-100 touched its intra-day high of plus 135 points after which profit booking was seen. Nevertheless, the KSE-100 index managed to end positive at 32,972, gaining 14 points.
Cement sector recovered in the latter half of the day on the rumor of no change in the interest rate where MLCF (up 0.2 percent), DGKC (down 1.5 percent), PIOC (up 3.0 percent) and LUCK (up 2.3 percent) were the major players of the mentioned sector. Mixed sentiment was seen in the financial sector as MCB (up 1.0 percent) and UBL (up 1.6 percent) closed green while NBP (down 0.1 percent) closed red.