Index surges by 124.33 points

KARACHI (January 06 2009): Fresh buying was witnessed at the Karachi share market on Monday and the benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 124.33 points to close at 5,917.90 points level. "Positive sentiment prevailed at the share market on the back of Rs 20 billion fund announced by NIT, which invited fresh buying mainly in blue chip stocks", analysts said.

The trading volume at the ready market stood at 210.111 million shares as compared to 210.762 million shares traded on Friday. The overall market capitalisation increased by Rs 37 billion to Rs 1.879 trillion. Trading took place in 269 scrips, out of which 194 scrips closed in the positive and 75 in the negative.

TRG Pakistan was the overall market volume leader with 16.083 million shares and gained Re. 0.57 to close at Rs 2.85. The E&P giant, OGDC surged by Rs 2.33 to close at Rs 49.27 with 15.281 million shares. NIB Bank increased by Re. 0.71 to close at Rs 6.01 with 12.772 million shares. Zeal Pak gained Re. 0.13 to close at Re. 0.71 with 12.647 million shares.

PTCL increased by Re. 0.10 to close at Rs 15.61 with 8.880 million shares. Hub Power gained Re. 1.00 to close at Rs 16.45 with 7.813 million shares. WorldCall Telecom surged by Re. 0.74 to close at Rs 4.23 with 6.649 million shares. Pak PTA Limited gained Re. 0.14 to close at Rs 2.09 with 6.575 million shares. Pak Start Fund increased by Re. 1.00 to close at Rs 2.78 with 5.577 million shares. MCB was the only scrip in the top ten volume leaders, which closed in the negative at Rs 108.52, down by Rs 5.30 with 6.575 million shares.

Unilever Pak and Millat Tractors were the highest gainers and gained Rs 85.00 and Rs 7.19 to close at Rs 1965.00 and Rs 151.04 respectively while Rafhan Maize and Siemens Pak were the worst losers and lost Rs 107.46 and Rs 53.00 to close at Rs 2041.78 and Rs 1021.00 respectively.

Ahsan Mehanti at Shehzad Chamdia Securities said that intense buying continued as the State Enterprise Fund managed by NIT took charge on bull run at Karachi share market. The liquidity crunch eased and retail investment brought in a four-month high volume.