Karachi stock exchange tops historic 26k mark on liquidity availability

Pakistan's Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) set up another historic milestone on Friday as its key index surpassed 26,000-mark amid availability of liquidity in the market but turnovers remained on the lower side. The benchmark KSE 100-Index gained 0.33 percent or 84.53 points to close at an all-time high of 26,046.71 points on Friday. During the week, the KSE 100-Index jumped by 788.66 points with four out of five trading sessions ending in green territory. The KSE All Share Index increased by 0.52 percent or 98.88 points to end at 19,280.61 points, the KSE 30-Index swelled by 0. 17 percent or 33.05 points to conclude at 19,355.4 points, whereas the KMI 30-Index moved up by 0.22 percent or 95.64 points to finish the day and week at 43,881.42 points on Friday. During Friday's trading session, the key index hit an all-time intraday highest level of 26,136.28 points as against an intraday low of 25,962.18 points. Market recorded renewed interest from retail investors from the last couple of sessions. Market volumes declined by 109.243 million shares to 277.988 million shares, capitalization improved by 31.719 billion rupees ( 302.092 million U.S. dollars) to 6.255 trillion rupees (59.579 billion U.S. dollars), whereas the KSE trading value fell by 2.525 billion rupees (24.052 million U.S. dollars) to 9.817 billion rupees (93.498 million U.S. dollars). During the week under review, the market reported total volumes of 1.36 billion shares at average daily turnovers of 272.280 million shares. Among 397 active scrips Friday, prices of 194 declined, 181 advanced, whereas values of 22 other companies stayed unchanged. TRG Pakistan Limited, PTCL, and DGKC were the top traded companies with turnovers of 21.656 million shares, 12.568 million shares, and 12.343 million shares, respectively. Nestle Pakistan was the top price gainer with increment of 275 rupees (2.61 U.S. dollars) to close at 8,475 rupees (80.71 U.S. dollars) while on the other hand Wyeth Pakistan Limited led the major losers with decrement of 60 rupees (57.14 U.S. cents) to finish at 4,500 rupees (42.85 U.S. dollars)