On Thursday the bulls kept dominating Karachi stocks market with the benchmark, KSE 100-share index skyrocket 277.40 points. Ahsan Mehanti, Director at Arif Habib Investments Limited, said that the bullish activity continued at KSE in the pre budget rally in stocks across the board with a record close on strong valuations. The day saw the index closing up by 1.96 percent at 14419.92 points against 14142.52 points of Wednesday. The trading volumes at the ready-counter were recorded higher at 293.970 million shares against 246.394 million shares of the previous day. The trading value was up to Rs 8.482 billion compared to Rs 6.213 billion of the previous session. The intraday high and low, respectively, stood at 14454.50 and 14142.52 points. He added that the rise in local power tariff, higher global commodities and Investors speculation ahead of revised CGT announcements in finance bill due next month amid renewed foreign interest in oil and banking stocks played a catalyst role in bullish sentiments at KSE post quarterend earnings announcements despite concerns for pending circular debt issues and rising political noise. The market capitalization grew modestly and increased to Rs 3.683 trillion from Rs 3.615 trillion a day earlier. Of the total 389 traded scrips, 247 gained, 90 lost and 52 finished as unchanged. The free-float KSE-30 index also gained 211.79 points to close at 12,578.11 points against the previous 12,366.32 points. The KSE all-share index closed with a gained of 188.09 points to 10113.80 points as against 9,925.71 points. P.T.C.L.A was the day’s volume leader counting its traded shares at 26.417 million with the opening and closing rates standing at Rs 13.52 and Rs 14.42, followed by Lotte Pakistan PTA, D.G.K. Cement, Jahangir Siddiqui Company and Fatima Fertilizers Company XD with turnover of 22.764 million, 15.901 million, 13.673 million and 13.049 million shares respectively. On the future market, the turnover recovered remarkably by over 5 million shares to 16.704 million against 11.874 million shares of Wednesday. The Unilever Pakistan Limited and Unilever Food, up Rs 306.67 and Rs 129.14, led highest price gainers while, Island Textile and Ismail Industries, down Rs 5.49 and Rs 4.35 respectively, laed the losers.
