KARACHI: Trading on the national bourse began with the benchmark of major shares extending losses from the previous sessions.
But a bullish trend overpowered the bears soon enough to help the index close on the higher side, said Topline Securities Ltd.
The KSE-100 index traded within a range of 1,099 points, with positive contributions originating from stocks in the oil marketing and refinery sectors.
JS Global Capital Ltd said the upswing in the stock market is likely to continue going forward. It recommended that investors should take advantage of any downside as an opportunity to buy stocks in banking, cement and exploration and production sectors.
According to Arif Habib Ltd, the ratio of advancers to decliners within the KSE-100 index remained 67:29, with key upside movers being Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (up two per cent), Pakistan State Oil Company Ltd (up 3.2pc) and Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (1.6pc).
As a result, the KSE-100 index closed at 62,693.57 points after gaining 245.56 points or 0.39 per cent from the preceding session.
The overall trading volume decreased 31.6pc to 812.4 million shares. The traded value decreased 35.9pc to Rs16.7 billion on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included K-Electric Ltd (209.4m shares), Cynergyico PK Ltd (101.5m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (59.8m shares), Pakistan Telecommunication Ltd (45.1m shares) and Kohinoor Spinning Mills Ltd (36.9m shares).
Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs46.80), Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd (Rs46.65), Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs37), Siemens Pakistan Engineering Ltd (Rs29.94) and Pak Suzuki Motor Company Ltd (Rs25.20).
Companies registering the biggest decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd (Rs444), Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs194), Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs55), Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (Rs29.77) and Ibrahim Fibres Ltd (Rs27.67).
Foreign investors were net sellers for the second consecutive day since November 8 as they offloaded shares worth $0.67m.
Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2023
