KARACHI – After falling to five-month low the previous day, the Karachi stock market strengthened on Friday on political stability, while the investors took new positions in the equity market.
The benchmark KSE 100-index ended the day at 11014.46, up 105.34 points or 0.97 per cent as compared to 10909.12 a day earlier, KSE all-share index gained 69.97 or 0.92 percent to end at 7645.11, KSE 30-index added 115.59 points or 1.15 per cent to finish at 10176.24 while the KMI 30-index added 244 points or 1.23 per cent to stop the day at 20084.81.
Smar Iqbal, equity dealer at Topline Securities, said that with political noise cooling down investors took fresh positions at the local equity markets. Index increased by more than 100 points to settle above 11,000 points mark. Active buying was witnessed in OGDC, NBP, and FFC. “Stocks closed bullish in earnings announcements session at KSE after political noise eased on hopes for caution and policy of conciliation with judiciary and army by federal government,” said Ahsan Mehanti, Director Arif Habib Investments, in his analysis.
Market traded 32.057 million shares from its opening at 21.120 million shares. The overall market capitalization was Rs 2.866 trillion as against Rs 2.840 trillion. Trading took place in 320 companies where gainers outnumbered the losers by 147 to 47 while 126 stocks were unchanged.
Jahnger Siddiqi Company was the volume leader of the day with 3.271 million shares as it closed at Rs 4.27 after opening at 4.07, gaining Re 0.2, followed by the Fauji Fertilize Bin Qasim, Fatima Fertilizer Company, Fauji Fertilizer and National Bank with the turnover of 2.449 million, 2.256 million, 2.104 million and 1.851 million shares respectively.
Leading gainers were led by Rafhan Maze Product and Indus Dyeing, up by Rs 97.67 and 18.97, while the top losers were led by the Nestle PakistanXD and Tri-Pack Films, down by Rs 56.57 and Rs 3.87 respectively.