On Tuesday, the bulls kept dominating Karachi stocks market with the benchmark, KSE 100-share index skyrocket 84.90 points. Ahsan Mehanti, Director at Arif Habib Investments Limited, said that the Pakistan stocks closed higher amid trading in narrow range as progress towards reopening of NATO supplies triggers institutional support and investors speculate on favorable federal budget announcements for corporate sector. The day saw the index closing up by 0.60 percent at 14,313.67 points against 14,228.77 points of first working day of the week. The trading volumes at the ready-counter were recorded higher at 152.800 million shares against 101.423 million shares of the previous day. The trading value was up to Rs 6.303 billion compared to Rs 3.796 billion of the last day session. The intraday high and low, respectively, stood at 14,373.12 and 14,228.77 points. He added that the Investor interest in blue-chip stocks in oversold fertiliser, cement, telecom sectors witnessed despite uncertain global stocks and commodities on Euro zone debt crises. The market capitalisation grew modestly and increased to Rs 3.655 trillion from Rs 3.635 trillion a day earlier. Of the total 371 traded scrips, 170 gained, 134 lost and 67 finished as unchanged. The free-float KSE-30 index also gained 90.79 points to close at 12,501.20 points against the previous 12,410.41 points. The KSE all-share index closed with a gained of 56.20 points to 10,041.67 points as against 9,985.47 points. Mehanti stated that Strong earnings outlook for oil sector, expected double digit rise in PSDP allocations in federal budget and hopes for early resolution of circular debt issues played a catalyst role in bullish sentiments at KSE. P.T.C.L.A was the day’s volume leader counting its traded shares at 23.319 million with the opening and closing rates standing at Rs 16.36 and Rs 16.98, followed by Engro Food Limited, D.G.K. Cement, Jahangir Siddiqui Company and Bank Islami Pakistan with turnover of 21.386 million, 14.663 million, 9.871 million and 6.278 million shares respectively. On the future market, the turnover recovered by over one million shares to 13.996 million against 12.647 million shares of Monday. The Nestle Pakistan Limited and Rafhan Maize XD, up Rs 133.32 and Rs 100.00, led highest price gainers while, Unilever Food SPOT and Wyeth Pakistan Limited, down Rs 33.40 and Rs 21.81 respectively, led the losers.
