Trading activity also improved as daily trading volumes on the ready counter increased to 287.866 million shares as compared to 260.205 million shares traded Wednesday. The market capitalization increased by Rs 81 billion to Rs 9.777 trillion. Out of total 394 active scrips, 249 closed in positive, 132 in negative while the value of 13 stocks remained unchanged. Engro Polymer was the volume leader with 39.189 million shares. It increased by Rs 1.44 to close at Rs 30.36 followed by Invest Bank that declined by Rs 1.00 to close at Rs 3.98 with 20.052 million shares. Aisha Steel Mill lost Rs 0.28 to close at Rs 23.67 with 14.827 million shares. Rafhan Maize and Sapphire Textile were the top gainers with Rs 187.23 and Rs 51.00, respectively to close at Rs 7,299.98 and Rs 1,797.00. Colgate Palmolive and Nestle Pakistan were the top losers with Rs 100.00 and Rs 45.00, respectively to close at Rs 2,200.00 and Rs 9,155.00.
Arhum Ghous at JS Global Capital said that the market finally broke its bearish streak as the KSE-100 index rebounded to close at 49,283 level, up 678 points. Major index movers were HBL (up 2.22 percent), LUCK (up 2.06 percent), SNGP (up 4.36 percent) and UBL (up 1.77 percent) as they cumulatively contributed 208 points to the index. Banking sector led the gains in the market as MCB, HBL and UBL closed in the green zone. OMC sector gained to close higher than its previous close as Oil sales rose 16 percent on month-on-month basis to 2.22 million tons in April 2017. APL (up 2.73 percent) and HASCOL (up 0.98 percent) were the major movers of the aforementioned sector.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that the market relegated prevailing politics, as investors quickly realised that The Force is stronger given MSCI-EM index inclusion is around the corner. Subsequently, the KSE-100 index surged 1.4 percent. Naturally, index leaders were all MSCI heavy weights with HBL (up 2.2 percent), ENGRO (up 3.1 percent), LUCK (up 2.1 percent), MCB (up 2.6 percent) and UBL (up 1.8 percent) adding 276 points to the gain, while COLG (down 4.3 percent), DAWH (down 0.6 percent), PIOC (down 1.3 percent), JLICL (down 2.5 percent) and NESTLE (down 0.5 percent) eroded 27 points. On the sector front, Banks contributed 206 points, while Fertiliser and Cements contributed 91 points and 89 points, respectively. EPCL (up 5 percent) continued to rally, closing above Rs 30/share after almost 9 years as the company's operations have improved.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017