karachi -
 

The Karachi stock market closed bullish in the quarter end earning announcement session on record results in banking, cement and textile stocks.
The benchmark KSE 100-share index posted a fresh gain of 159.57 points or 0.85 per cent to end the day at 18982.42 points compared to 18822.85 points of a day earlier.
Ahsan Mehanti, equity expert at Arif Habib Corp, said bullish sentiments prevailed amid hopes for lower CPI inflation for April and economic impact of re-basing GDP by 7.8pc. Recovery in global commodities and political consensus to contest elections despite security unrest played a catalyst role in bullish activity at KSE.
KSE allshare-index went up by 101.99 points or 0.76 percent to finish the day at 13497.01 points, KSE 30-share index gained 140.64 points or 0.97 percent to conclude the day at 14640.74 points while KMI 30-share index increased by 170.58 points or 0.52 percent to stop the day at 32963.96 points.
With expectation that the election would be held on time and economic situation will improve after the change of government investors built new positions. Heavy weight OGDC and MCB rallied due to institutional buying. FFC after its excellent payout also performed well. FCCL after its March result attracted some interest and remained the volume leader, dealer observed. 
Market traded 195.003 million shares after opening at 157.128 million shares and the value of traded shares climbed to Rs 4.871 billion from Rs 3.837 billion while the capitalization of equity market settled at Rs 4.663 trillion compared to Rs 4.628 trillion of a day earlier.
During the session, 376 companies participated in the trading where gainers outnumbered the losers by 202 to 159 while the values of 15 stocks remaned intact. Bata (Pak) XD and Colgate Palmolive were the top traded companies of the day, up by Rs 108.10 to Rs 2270.28 and Rs 92.62 to Rs 1945.12. Island Textile and Sanofi-Aventis XD were the top losers of the day, decreased by Rs 29.83 to Rs 825.67 and Rs 16.09 to Rs 406.01.
Fauji Cement was the top traded company of the day with 41.006 million shares as it closed at Rs 8.86 after opening at Rs 8.67. PTCLA was on the second position with 14.872 million shares, shed Re 0.38 to Rs 17.92. It was followed by TRG Pakistan Limited with 13.525 million shares, off by Re 1 to Rs 10.82, Maple Leaf Cement with 11.535 million shares, up by Re 0.20 to Rs 18.54, and Wateen Telecom Limited with 9.261 million shares, added Re 0.12 to Rs 5.28.