PTC recovered from Monday's plunge, gaining 2.3 percent as massive buying at lower levels helped the battered telecom giant to get back on its feet again. The banking sector shined under the lead of NBP and Askari Commercial Bank with both stocks hitting their respective upper caps as punters built positions on the back of strong earnings expectations.
Ahmed Ashraf Sheikh from Akbarally Cassim said a bull day was witnessed at the stock exchange as institutions and punters took fresh positions in OGDC and PTCL. Banking sector came in the limelight as handsome result announcement from UBL led to the perception that entire banking sector results would be amusing. Bonus announcement from Fauji Fertiliser was not able to spark buying interest in the scrip as the share price is fairly priced at a P/E of 11.
The badla increased by 810 million rupees. The badla volumes remained stagnant but the amount rose due to appreciation in the share prices. The weak holders continued to face hardships to finance all their positions as the liquidity crunch continues in the market. The badla rates remained at limit up levels.
NBP closed on its upper cap of Rs 103 with a volume of 63.6 million on expectations of a bonus issue charged up the bulls to push the stock upwards. The energy sector was in the limelight again as all major stocks managed to gain strongly on the back of rise in international oil prices with stocks like OGDC, PSO, Pakistan Oilfields and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd, closing well above overnight levels.
The cement sector recovered under the lead of DGKC, which gained 5.3 percent to close at Rs 60 with Lucky Cement also gaining 2.8 percent to close at Rs 43.1.
Tariq Hussain Khan from Atlas Investment Bank said that the contrary to expectations, the market recorded an increase due to fresh buying in OGDCL, SSGPL, Askari Bank, NBP and FFC, which sparked the rally to maintain its bullish trend. Turnover remained on the rise at 554.9 million shares changed hands, jumping by 99 percent as compared to 278.3 million shares recorded in the last trading session.
Even the expected increase in the 6-month T-Bills yield did not have an impact in investors' confidence as the SBP invited tenders worth Rs 5 billion on Wednesday. At the end, the benchmark KSE-100 closed at 6869.28 while it moved in a wide-range of 6747-6900. PTCL and OGDCL contributed towards 43 percent of the total turnover.
PTCL moved up to Rs 62.80 from Rs 60.80 on a trading of 165 million shares, OGDC closed at Rs 82.60, ie Rs 1.60 on a turnover of 75 million shares, National Bank of Pakistan showed an increase of Rs 7.15 to Rs 103 on a volume of 63.6 million shares, Askari Bank recorded a rise of Rs 6.40 to Rs 108.90 on deals of 33 million shares and Nishat Mills suffered a decline of Rs 1.90 to Rs 93 on a volume of 26 million shares.