BRIndex30 however closed on negative note at 21,646.34 points, down 45.52 points or 0.21 percent with a turnover of 77.417 million shares. The KSE-100 index increased by 168.59 points or 0.43 percent to close at 39,090.28 points. Trading activity remained low as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 112.051 million shares as compared to 133.847 million shares traded Wednesday. Daily trading value declined to Rs 4.587 billion against Wednesday''s Rs 5.848 billion.
Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $0.5 million. The market capitalization increased by Rs 52 billion to Rs 7.896 trillion. Out of total 336 active scrips, 184 closed in negative, 137 in positive while the value of 15 stocks remained unchanged.
Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 11.432 million shares and gained Rs 0.13 to close at Rs 12.71 followed by WorldCall Telecom that inched up by Re 0.20 to close at Rs 1.61 with 7.960 million shares. Rafhan Maize and Pak Tobacco were the top gainers with Rs 200.00 and Rs 79.00, respectively to close at Rs 6,700.00 and Rs 2,793.90. Pak Services and Wyeth Pak were the top losers with Rs 53.00 and Rs 41.37, respectively to close at Rs 1,007.00 and Rs 988.63.
BR Commercial Banks Index gained 33.92 points or 0.41 percent to close at 8,363.25 points with total turnover of 14.276 million shares. BR Cement Index lost 24.26 points or 0.58 percent to close at 4,193.23 points with 6.751 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index increased by 77.54 points or 1.62 percent to close at 4,871.11 points with 14.584 million shares. BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 990.06 points, up 0.09 points or 0.01 percent with 15.888 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 0.66 points or 0.01 percent to close at 6,147.35 points with 8.726 million shares.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that the KSE-100 index closed in the green, due to reports that The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has expressed a degree of satisfaction over Pakistan''s efforts and action plan to combat money laundering and terror financing under international obligations and indicated certain areas to do more before May this year to get out of the grey list.
Oil prices jumped, helped by the hopes of easing trade tensions between China and the U.S., while Opec led crude output cuts also provided support. Consequently, the E&P sector lifted the index by 138 points, led by PPL (up 3.29 percent), OGDC (up 2.39 percent) and POL (up 1.9 percent).