KARACHI: Equities carried forward the bullish momentum into the eighth consecutive session on Wednesday.

Topline Securities Ltd said the market gains could be attributed to the investors’ buying interest in energy stocks on the expectation of a hike in the gas tariff that is likely to be announced in the ongoing week.

Arif Habib Ltd said the advance towards the August highs continues as the session closed when the index was at the highest level of the day.

It continues to expect further gains with the expectation that the benchmark’s 47,900-point level will remain intact.

In addition to exploration and production stocks, auto companies also played a key role in the index rise, said JS Global Capital Ltd. The stock market is expected to post further gains, it said, adding that investors should book profits and then wait for dips to re-enter.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 48,474.54 points, up 334.26 points or 0.69pc from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume increased 13.2pc to 396.4 million shares. The traded value decreased 2.1pc on a day-on-day basis to Rs10.5 billion.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included K-Electric Ltd (145.1m shares), Pakistan Refinery Ltd (18.1m shares), Unity Foods Ltd (15.9m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (11.9m shares) and Pak Elektron Ltd (10.8m shares).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs141.11), Philip Morris Pakistan Ltd (Rs35.56), Pakistan Hotels Developers Ltd (Rs31.98), Khyber Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs27.01) and Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (Rs12.29).

Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs64.36), Ibrahim Fibres Ltd (Rs8.79), Mehmood Textile Mills Ltd (Rs8.75), Exide Pakistan Ltd (Rs8.21) and Mitchells Fruit Farms Ltd (Rs7.43).

Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.86m.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2023