The bulls kept dominating Karachi stocks market on last working day of the week Friday with benchmark, KSE 100-share index gained 7.01 points. The day saw the index closing up by 0.05 percent at 13936.48 points against 13,929.47 points of Thursday.
Higher global commodities, rising local and export cement prices, expectations for stronger quarter-end results played a catalyst role in bullish sentiments at KSE, said Abdul Azeem, an analyst at InvestCap.
On Friday, the trading volumes at the ready-counter were recorded lower at 244.205 million shares against 307.931 million shares of the previous day. The trading value too decreased to Rs 6.485 billion compared to Rs 7.481 billion of the previous session. The intraday high and low, respectively, stood at 14,059.87 and 13,925.45 points. He added that the Pakistan Stocks closed higher amid renewed institutional & foreign interest lead by third tier stocks.
The market capitalization decreased to Rs 3.568trillion from Rs 3.572 trillion a day earlier. Of the total 345 traded scrips, 127 gained, 151 lost and 67 finished as unchanged. The free-float KSE-30 index also gained 43.27 points to close at 12,223.05 points against the previous 12,179.78 points.
Engro Polymer was the day’s volume leader counting its traded shares at 27.867 million with the opening and closing rates standing at Rs 12.82 and Rs 13.92, followed by P.T.C.L.A, Jahangir Siddiqui Company Limited, Lafarge Pakistan and Fauji Cement with turnover of 22.743 million, 18.563 million, 14.894 million and 12.882 million shares respectively.
According to analyst the Index remained over a narrow range amid investor interest in selected oil, cement and banking stocks ahead of key quarter end earning announcements due next week. On the future market, the turnover plunged by over 7 million shares to 11.236 million against 18.485 million shares of Thursday.
The UniLever Pakistan Limited XD and Bata Pakistan XD, up Rs 41.83 and Rs 29.02, led highest price gainers while, Rafhan Maize XD and Indus Dyeing, down Rs 127.57 and Rs 19.21 respectively, led the losers.
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