Pakistan Stock Exchange Tuesday witnessed a positive trend on the second consecutive day following fresh buying by local, foreign investors. BRIndex100 inched up by 19.0 points or 0.56 percent to close at 3,428.11 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 3,428.11 and intraday low of 3,396.70 points. Volumes stood at 92.472 million shares.
BRIndex30 gained 175.43 points or 1.01 percent to close at 17,611.72 points with a turnover of 75.205 million shares. The KSE-100 Index increased by 131.33 points or 0.40 percent to close at 32,715.88 points. Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on the ready counter increased to 97.118 million shares as compared to 44.702 million shares traded Monday.
Foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $1.4 million. The market capitalization increased by Rs 4 billion to Rs 6.598 trillion. Out of total 318 active scrips, 178 closed on positive note, 110 in negative while the value of 30 stocks remained unchanged. Maple Leaf was the volume leader with 13.217 million shares. It gained Re 0.91 to close at Rs 20.12 followed by Unity Foods that inched up by Re 0.06 to close at Rs 9.53 with 8.611 million shares. Murree Brewery and Indus Motor Co were the top gainers with Rs 24.88 and Rs 12.31, respectively to close at Rs 749.99 and Rs 1,093.91. Nestle Pakistan and Pak Suzuki were the top losers with Rs 322.31 and Rs 10.06, respectively to close at Rs 6,137.69 and Rs 191.32.
BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 23.54 points or 0.44 percent to close at 5,272.30 points with total turnover of 1.044 million shares. BR Cement Index increased by 65.52 points or 2.32 percent to close at 2,892.36 points with 23.884 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index gained 16.15 points or 0.20 percent to close at 7,932.66 points with 7.711 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index lost 0.17 points to close at 4,581.34 points with 2.928 million shares. BR Oil and Gas Index inched up by 13.24 points to close at 0.35 percent to close at 3,786.11 points with 5.301 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 693.71 points, up 13.72 points or 2.02 percent with 12.761 million shares. An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market opened on a positive note with plus 17 points but faced selling pressure that took the index down by 129 points. Prime Minister's ongoing visit to USA was well received by the media and political analysts, but failed to garner the support as anticipated by stock traders. By the end of session, cement and steel sector scrips saw better price performance and stocks like DGKC, MLCF and ISL were seen traded at upper circuits.
Much of this activity is attributed to short covering by investors, which have been selling bearish on these sectors due to anticipation of poor results. Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (up 43 points), Fertilizer (up 27 points), Banks (up 18 points), E&P (up 17 points) and Pharma (up 16 points).
Stocks that contributed positively include FFC (up 26 points), EFERT (up 14 points), HBL (up 13 points), UBL (up 11 points) and FCCL (up 10 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include NESTLE (down 16 points), ENGRO (down 11 points), HUBC (down 7 points), NATF (down 6 points) and IGIHL (down 6 points).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2015