KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Friday witnessed a bullish trend on the back of healthy buying by local and foreign investors.
BRIndex100 gained 33.87 points or 0.71 percent to close at 4,829.46 points. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,861.67 and intraday low of 4,795.37 points. Volumes stood at 658.594 million shares.
BRIndex30 inched up by 97.97 points or 0.41 percent to close at 24,170.94 points with a turnover of 516.638 million shares.
The KSE-100 Index increased by 309.80 points or 0.68 percent to close at 45,654.34 points. Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on ready counter increased to 696.434 million shares as compared to 641.437 million shares traded on Thursday.
Foreign investors also remained net buyers of shares worth $315,223. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 62 billion to Rs 8.311 trillion. Out of total 416 active scrips, 222 closed in positive and 171 in negative while the value of 23 stocks remained unchanged.
Byco Petroleum was the volume leader with 163.810 million shares and gained Rs 0.60 to close at Rs 10.41 followed by Hum Network that inched up by Rs 0.28 to close at Rs 6.43 to close at Rs 44.943 million shares. Nestle Pakistan and Bhanero Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 107.09 and Rs 61.98 respectively to close at Rs 6807.09 and Rs 893.99 while Gatron Industries and Mari Petroleum were the top losers declining by Rs 44.00 and Rs 18.57 respectively to close at Rs 546.00 and Rs 1389.77.
BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 14.47 points or 0.17 percent to close at 8,666.53 points with total turnover of 2.633 million shares.
BR Cement Index lost 10.97 points or 0.18 percent to close at 6,251.72 points with 36.025 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index increased by 148.9 points or 1.59 percent to close at 9,494.22 points with 95.478 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index closed at 5,599.36 points, down 5.07 points or 0.09 percent with 55.929 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index inched up by 2.63 points or 0.06 percent to close at 4,285.01 points with 20.408 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index surged by 32.81 points or 1.23 percent to close at 2,706.11 points with 79.171 million shares.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that the stocks closed higher amid record trades led by oil and banking scrips on speculations ahead of financial results. Investor concerns over security unrest in the country impacted the sentiments.
He said surging global crude oil prices, exports growth in December 2020, 2.5 percent upside in projected GDP growth for FY21 and bull- run in global equities played a catalyst role in bullish close.
