The bulls stamped their authority on the Karachi stocks market on last working day of the week Friday with benchmark, KSE 100-share index gained 137.87 points. The day saw the index closing up by 0.90 percent at 15,391.58 points against 15,253.71 points of Thursday. Pakistan Stocks closed bullish after CPI Inflation for Aug’12 come at 9.05% amid hopes for cut in policy rates. This was stated by Ahsan Mehanti, Director at Arif Habib Investments Limited. On Friday, the trading volumes at the ready-counter were recorded higher at 242.063 million shares against 223.722 million shares of the previous day. The trading value too increased to Rs 7.845 billion compared to Rs 6.879 billion of the previous session. The intraday high and low, respectively, stood at 15,420.05 and 15,253.71 points.
He added that the blue chip stocks in telecom, oil sector led the rally amid interest in third tier stocks on strong valuations leading the index to close near session high. The market capitalization increased to Rs 3.919 trillion from Rs 3.885 trillion a day earlier. Of the total 319 traded scrips, 174 gained, 126 lost and 19 finished as unchanged. The free-float KSE-30 index added 159.51 points to close at 13,229.93 points against the previous 13,070.42 points.
WorldCall Telecom was the day’s volume leader counting its traded shares at 30.562 million with the opening and closing rates standing at Rs 2.89 and Rs 3.29, followed by P.T.C.L.A, Telecard Limited, Engro Corporation and Jahangir Siddiqui Company with turnover of 18.423 million, 17.212 million, 12.335 million and 10.055 million shares respectively. Mehanti said that the renewed foreign interest, higher global commodities affected the sentiments despite concerns for security issues in the city. On the future market, the turnover increased by over seven million shares to 24.728 million against 17.514 million shares of Thursday. The Colgate Palmolive and Bata Pakistan Limited, up Rs 55.00 and Rs 52.89, led highest price gainers while, Nestle Pakistan Limited and Mithchells Fruit, down Rs 50.00 and Rs 13.75 respectively, led the losers.