Foreign investors however remained net sellers of shares worth $2.4 million. The market capitalization increased by Rs 208 billion to Rs 7.302 trillion. Out of total 371 active scrips, 306 closed in positive, only 48 in negative while the value of 17 stocks remained unchanged.
Maple Leaf was the volume leader with 18.111 million shares. It increased by Rs 1.70 to close at Rs 26.09 followed by Hascol Petroleum that gained Re 0.55 to close at Rs 19.38 with 15.666 million shares.
Unilever Foods and Philip Morris Pak were the top gainers with Rs 200.00 and Rs 90.00, respectively to close at Rs 7,400.00 and Rs 2,428.00. Sapphire Fiber and Sapphire Textile were the top losers with Rs 64.96 and Rs 61.53, respectively to close at Rs 863.04 and Rs 850.01.
BR Automobile Assembler Index increased by 179.21 points or 3.19 percent to close at 5,798.37 points with total turnover of 1.374 million shares. BR Cement Index surged by 228.85 points or 6.0 percent to close at 4,042.53 points with 48.498 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index gained 152.57 points or 1.64 percent to close at 9,468.01 points with 27.041 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 180.43 points or 3.53 percent to close at 5,293.54 points with 9.568 million shares. BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 4,130.28 points, up 171.49 points or 4.33 percent with 30.358 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index gained 48.67 points or 5.32 percent to close at 964.05 points with 20.346 million shares. Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said that the PSX gave a warm welcome to its investors on start of the new month as the index made an intraday high of plus 1,379 points to close at 39,296 level, up 1,312 points. This positivity came after the announcement of CPI for the month of February which clocked in at 12.40 percent on year-on-year basis. On monthly basis, the urban CPI recorded a decrease of 1.09 percent while rural CPI recorded a decrease of 0.97 percent.
Major movers of the day which dragged the index upward were ENGRO (up 6.4 percent), OGDC (up 5.8 percent), PPL (up 5.3 percent), BAHL (up 5.6 percent), LUCK (up 5.3 percent) and HUBC (up 3.8 percent). Cement sector continued its upward rally where DGKC (up 7.0 percent), MLCF (up 7.0 percent), CHCC (up 7.0 percent), PIOC (up 7.0 percent) and FCCL (up 6.9 percent) all closed at their respective upper circuit.
From the E&P sector POL (up 3.0 percent), PPL (up 5.3 percent) and OGDC (up 5.8 percent) closed in the green zone as crude oil prices edged higher in the international market.