Karachi bourse surges 1.08%,regains 29k-barrier

Pakistan's Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) returned to bullish ways on Tuesday as the main index scampered past the 29,000 points-barrier after losing it the other day as bulk of the trade was done in cement and banking sectors. The benchmark KSE 100-Index jumped by 1.08 percent or 313.07 points to 29,191.84 points on Tuesday as against 28,878.77 points recorded on Monday. The KSE All Share Index gained 0.93 percent or 199.98 points to 21,791.59 points, the KSE 30-Index increased by 1.09 percent or 220.28 points to 20,337.55 points, whereas the KMI 30-Index ballooned by 0.74 percent or 341.28 points to 46,357.46 points. During Tuesday's trading session, the key index hit an intraday high of 29,239.59 points as against an intraday low of 28,878.77 points. The market returned to bullish ways after the three-day bearish trend as banking, cement, and power companies remained on top of the priorities' list. Market volumes improved by 28.532 million shares to 191.485 million shares, capitalization swelled by 63.031 billion rupees ( 630.313 million U.S. dollars) to 6.994 trillion rupees (69.94 billion U.S. dollars), whereas the trading value shot up by 2.196 billion rupees (21.968 million U.S. dollars) to 9.43 billion rupees (94.308 million U.S. dollars). Among the 360 active companies Tuesday, prices of 183 issues advanced, 157 pared value, whereas 20 other scrips stayed unchanged at previous day's levels. As per the figures released by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited, foreign investors came up with net investment of 7.146 billion rupees (71.461 million U.S. dollars) during the first three weeks of April. Maple Leaf Cement, Lafarge Pakistan Limited and Faysal Bank Limited were the top traded companies with turnovers of 19.402 million shares, 10.68 million shares, and 9.915 million shares, respectively. Rafhan Maize was the top price gainer with an increment of 240 rupees (2.4 U.S. dollars) to 10,740 rupees (107.4 U.S. dollars) while Wyeth Pakistan Limited led the major losers with decrement of 100 rupees (1 U.S. dollars) to 4,100 rupees (41 U.S. dollars).