BRIndex30 opened at 20,514.47 points. It touched intraday high of 20,763.87 points and intraday low of 20,443.65 points to close at 20,711.29 points which was 196.82 points or 0.96 percent higher than previous close. Volume at BRIndex30 stood at 139.995 million shares.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index closed at 38,123 points against 37,795 points on Tuesday, showing an increase of 327.67 points. Volumes declined significantly by 53 percent to 228 million shares versus 489 million shares traded Tuesday. The market capitalization increased by Rs 69 billion to Rs 7.301 trillion.
Out of total 366 active scrips, some 231 closed positive, 118 negative while the value of 17 stocks remained unchanged. Top volume leaders of the bourse were UNITY (+0.4%), FFL (+3.5%) and MLCF (+5.0%) cumulatively contributing 59 million shares to the total volume. Analysts said that political uncertainty took a center stage since yesterday, when the Supreme Court took notice of Army Chief's extension. Considering this issue to be a procedural issue, the market took a positive view of the situation and partly recovered. Buying activity was largely observed in Steel and Cement sectors. Steel and Auto sector scrips hit upper circuits.
Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib said stocks showed recovery on institutional interest in late session buying at PSX on easing political uncertainty. Higher global crude oil prices, surging global equities and speculations on likely resolve to the circular debt issue played a catalytic role in bullish close, he added.
Pak Tobacco and Services Ind Ltd were the top gainers with Rs 116 and Rs 38 to close at Rs 2,490.00 and Rs 798.00, respectively. Unilever Foods and Colgate Palm were the top losers with Rs 345.00 and Rs 69.99 to Rs 6,900.00 and Rs 1,980.00, respectively.
BR Automobile Assembler Index closed at 6,079.65 points with a net positive change of 66.35 points or a percentage change of 1.1 and a total turnover of 2,567,860.
BR Cement Index gained 16.29 points or 0.47 percent to close at 3,478.52 points with a turnover of 35,497,200.
BR Commercial Banks Index closed at 8,757.40 points with a net positive change of 108.23 points or a percentage change of 1.25 and a total turnover of 14,508,300.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index closed at 5,233.96 points with a net positive change of 57.46 points or a percentage change of 1.11 and a turnover of 5,184,000.
BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 4,302.87 points with a net positive change of 3.49 points or a percentage change of 0.08 and a total turnover of 8,993,840.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 917.89 points with a net positive change of 8.95 points or a percentage change of 0.98 and a total turnover of 16,292,500.