Pakistan Stock Exchange Friday witnessed a mixed trend, however fresh buying at the fag end supported the market to close on a positive note. BRIndex100 gained 20.27 points or 0.45 percent to close at 4,485.47 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,490.11 and intraday low of 4,435.45 points. Volumes stood at 141.989 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 167.81 points or 0.72 percent to close at 23,515.05 points with a turnover of 94.838 million shares. The KSE-100 Index surged by 126.08 points or 0.30 percent to close at 42,633.02 points. Trading activity however remained low as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 173.043 million shares as compared to 230.827 million shares traded Thursday.

The market capitalization increased by Rs 20 billion to Rs 7.959 trillion. Out of total 350 active scrips, 178 closed in positive, 152 in negative while the value of 20 stocks remained unchanged. Maple Leaf was the volume leader with 17.689 million shares. It gained Re 0.62 to close at Rs 23.54 followed by Al-Shaheer (R) that increased by Re 1.00 to close at Rs 3.32 with 14.028 million shares.

Sapphire Fiber and Mehmood Textile were the top gainers with Rs 29.56 and Rs 24.00, respectively to close at Rs 784.57 and Rs 463.00. Philip Morris Pak and Shifa International Hospital were the top losers with Rs 119.50 and Rs 16.40, respectively to close at Rs 2,337.50 and Rs 288.45.

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 6.16 points or 0.1 percent to close at 6,084.53 points with total turnover of 1.030 million shares. BR Cement Index surged by 63.53 points or 1.63 percent to close at 3,970.01 points with 37.685 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index inched up by 17.71 points or 0.17 percent to close at 10,195.00 points with 19.856 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index increased by 29.91 points or 0.52 percent to close at 5,835.47 points with 4.261 million shares. BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 4,974.17 points, up 20.81 points or 0.42 percent with 22.573 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index lost 6.55 points or 0.63 percent to close at 1,028.31 points with 17.363 million shares. An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market recovered some losses made earlier during the week and closed the session plus 126.08 points. During the session, the index swayed from negative 256 points to positive 200 points.

Cement sector gained both in volume and value, with KOHC hitting upper circuit and healthy buying activity observed in Cement heavy weights including LUCK, DGKC and MLCF. E&P sector also showed some signs of recovery with PPL crossing recent highs. Similarly, positive move was observed in Refineries, which saw ATRL and NRL closing at upper circuits. Cement Sector led the volumes with 36.5 million shares, followed by Food (18.8 million shares) and Banks (18.7 million shares).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (up 41 points), E&P (up 29 points), Power (up 19 points), Textile (up 18 points) and Banks (up 15 points).

Stocks that contributed positively include PPL (up 42 points), BAHL (up 17 points), LUCK (up 16 points), HUBC (up 15 points) and MCB (up 15 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include POL (down 21 points), HBL (down 15 points), SHFA (down 12 points), BAFL (down 9 points) and PMPK (down 8 points).