Samar Iqbal, an equity dealer at JS, said that some further improvement was seen in equity market amid hope that policy rate will come down in Friday''s monetary policy meeting. "PTC remained in limelight amid speculation that the international call rate case could be withdrawn, however, overall volumes remained dull due to year end," he mentioned.
Trading activity also witnessed some improvement and overall 119.206 million shares were traded at ready counter compared to 112.793 million shares a day earlier. Among 357 active scrips, 210 closed in positive and 122 in negative while the share price of 25 stocks was remained unchanged. The market capitalisation increased by Rs 16.314 billion to Rs 4.220 trillion from Rs 4.204 trillion.
With 11.21 million turnover, PTCL was the volume leader of the day as its share price gained Re 0.24 to close at Rs 17.32. Share price of Byco Petroleum up by Re 0.5 to Rs 11.42 with 8.79 million share trading. Maple Lead Cement gained Re 0.28 to close at 14.12 and its some 7.7 million shares were traded. With 5.6 million share trading, Lotte PakPTA closed at Rs 7.83, down by Re 0.02.
KESC lost Re 0.24 to close at Rs 6.31 with turnover of 4.4 million shares. Some 4.1 million shares of DG Khan Cement were traded and its price gained Re 0.83 to Rs 54.24. Nishat (Chunian) up by Rs 1.71 to close at Rs 35.99 with turnover of four million shares.
With an increase of Re 0.26, share price of Jah Sidd Co stood at Rs 17.35 and it''s some 3.5 million shares were traded. With 3.02 million share trading, Fauji cement gained Re 0.04 to close at Rs 6.55 per share. Telecard Limited increase by Re 0.14 to close at Rs 2.59 with share trading of 2.9 million. Unilever Pak and Pak Int Cont SD were the highest gainers and their share prices were up by Rs 100.17 and Rs 12.48 to close at Rs 10,000.48 and Rs 264.2 per share respectively. While, Bata Pak and Island Textile were the worst loser and declined by Rs 60 and Rs 16.85 to close at Rs 1,470 and Rs 1,108.15 per share respectively.
"Stock closed bullish with investor interest in stocks across the board on speculations for rate cut in SBP policy announcement today," said Ahsan Mehanti an analyst at Arif Habib. He said that shrinkage in trade deficit by 9.93 percent in first five moths, SRO resolution of used car policy for Auto Sector, higher home remittances, expectations for release of $600 million US coalition support fund, rising global stocks, higher cement sales data and rising fertilizer sector offtake data played a catalyst role in bullish sentiments at KSE.