On Thursday the bulls dominated the Karachi stock market again with trading volumes closing higher and the benchmark, KSE 100-share index, gaining 93.20 points. The day saw the index closing up by 0.76 percent at 12,404.24 points against 12,311.04 points of Wednesday. “Pakistan stocks turned bullish amid higher volumes after record earnings announcements Engro and renewed institutional and foreign interest,” said Ahsan Mehanti, a director at Arif Habib Investments. Other reasons, the senior analyst cited, as a catalyst at the KSE included strong earnings outlook in cements, oil and banks, higher global commodities, positive political outlook after the government and opposition joined hands to push the National Assembly for an interim setup and the restoration of law makers. This, the analyst said, was despite concerns for the Supreme Court’s announcements against the Prime Minister in the NRO implementation verdict.
The trading volumes at the ready-counter were recorded higher at 205.56 million shares against 172.08 million shares of the previous day. The trading value too surged to Rs 4.717 billion compared to Rs 3.055 billion of the previous session. The intraday high and low, respectively, stood at 12,418.32 and 12,311.04 points. The market capitalization modestly grew to Rs 3.233 trillion from Rs 3.2 trillion a day earlier. Of the total 335 traded scrips, 149 gained, 115 lost and 71 finished as unchanged. The free-float KSE-30 index also gained 82.89 points to close at 11,572.02 points against the previous 11,489.13 points.
Fauji Cement was the day’s volume leader counting its traded shares at 22.91 million with the opening and closing rates, respectively, standing at Rs 4.62 and Rs 4.98. On the future market, the turnover increased remarkably to 7.946 million shares compared to 5.297 million shares of Wednesday.
