Fresh buying, mainly by local investors in various sectors supported the Pakistan Stock Exchange to close on a positive note Wednesday. BRIndex100 gained 53.18 points or 1.72 percent to close at 3,147.63 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 3,156.74 and intraday low of 3,054.75 points. Volumes stood at 124.179 million shares.
BRIndex30 increased by 319.28 points or 2.01 percent to close at 16,234.38 points with a turnover of 92.812 million shares. The KSE-100 Index surged by 435.05 points or 1.46 percent to cross 30,000 crucial level at 30,244.73 points. Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on the ready counter increased to 128.886 million shares as compared to 64.038 million shares traded Tuesday.
Foreign investors however remained net sellers of shares worth $4.7 million. The market capitalization increased by Rs 75 billion to Rs 6.167 trillion. Out of total 341 active scrips, 238 closed in positive, only 81 in negative while the value of 22 stocks remained unchanged.
Maple Leaf was the volume leader with 11.456 million shares. It increased by Re 1.00 to close at Rs 18.20 followed by Fauji Cement that gained Re 0.58 to close at Rs 14.09 with 9.865 million shares. Colgate Palmolive and Wyeth Pak were the top gainers with Rs 83.15 and Rs 23.50, respectively to close at Rs 1,746.16 and Rs 603.50. Murree Brewery and Archroma Pak were the top losers with Rs 19.00 and Rs 14.98, respectively to close at Rs 745.00 and Rs 445.02.
BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 52.29 points or 1.12 percent to close at 4,724.41 points with total turnover of 1.029 million shares BR Cement Index surged by 114.57 points or 4.35 percent to close at 2,745.54 points with 29.279 million shares. BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 29.23 points or 0.4 percent to close at 7,196.08 points with 18.116 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 38.68 points or 0.95 percent to close at 4,100.29 points with 5.344 million shares. BR Oil and Gas Index increased by 112.94 points or 3.58 percent to close at 3,269.43 points with 10.484 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 647.41 points, up 28.95 points or 4.68 percent with 13.459 million shares. An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the release of CPI data proved to be required stimulus that the investors were waiting for. Latest release of CPI indicates a lower than anticipated reading and gave confidence to the view that SBP will likely consider revising down the policy rate.
Buying activity was observed almost across the board with the exception of banking sector scrips, which kept the blue chips in banking sector universe in red and the main reason behind minus 342 points earlier in the session.
Cement sector led the upsurge in index, which was supported by O&GMCs and E&P sectors where OGDC and PPL also hit upper circuit. Sectors that led the volumes table included cement (29.2 million shares), banks (18 million shares) and technology (13.5 million shares).
Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (up 148 points), Cement (up 81 points), Fertilizer (up 56 points), O&GMCs (up 46 points), Power (up 20 points) and Banks (down 33 points).
Stocks that contributed positively include ENGRO (up 61 points), OGDC (up 56 points), PPL (up 54 points), LUCK (up 46 points) and MCB (up 39 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include BAHL (down 38 points), MEBL (down 25 points), FFC (down 17 points), NBP (down 7 points) and HBL (down 7 points).