The benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 615.28 points or 1.47 percent to 42,523.99 points. Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on the ready counter increased to 260.949 million shares as compared to 222.352 million shares traded Thursday.
Foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $4.6 million. The market capitalization increased by Rs 112 billion to Rs 8.887 trillion. Out of total 388 active scrips, 282 closed in positive, only 86 in negative while the value of 20 stocks remained unchanged. Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 18.052 million shares. It gained Re 0.71 to close at Rs 9.51 followed by WorldCall Telecom that closed at Rs 2.96, up Re 0.01 with 11.937 million shares.
Nestle Pakistan and Wyeth Pak were top gainers with Rs 510.00 and Rs 72.24, respectively to close at Rs 11,700.00 and Rs 1,517.21. Shezan International and K.S.B. Pumps were the top losers with Rs 25.90 and Rs 16.51, respectively to close at Rs 492.10 and Rs 319.49. BR Commercial Banks Index surged by 142.75 or 1.68 percent to close at 8,622.96 points with total turnover of 44.554 million shares.
BR Cement Index increased by 134.18 points or 2.49 percent to close at 5,519.88 point with 24.310 million shares. BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 5,196.07 points, up 13.12 points or 0.25 percent with 12.390 million shares. BR Tech. & Comm. Index gained 9.61 points or 0.88 percent to close at 1,099.22 points with 27.572 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 8.97 points or 0.14 percent to close at 6,531.34 points with 12.885 million shares.
Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said that bulls ruled the local bourse, taking the KSE-100-index up by 615 points to close at 42,524 level. Banking sector extended its previous day gains where big banks boosted the index by 143 points. UBL (up 2.90 percent), HBL (up 2.24 percent) and BAHL (up 2.70 percent) were the major movers of the aforementioned sector.
Investors' interest was also witnessed in the cement sector on the back of growth in cement dispatches for the month of December 2017 that depicted 5 percent growth. MLCF (up 4.83 percent), LUCK (up 2.94 percent), PIOC (up 1.84 percent) and FCCL (up 3.47 percent) closed in the green zone. News regarding fertilizer export shifted investors' focus to the fertilizer sector on declining concerns over Urea closing inventory, where EFERT (up 1.37 percent) and FFC (up 3.64 percent) closed positively. E&P sector closed negatively as crude oil prices fell, dropping away from highs last seen in 2015, where PPL (down 0.56 percent) and POL (down 0.71 percent) decreased the most.