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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan stocks rose on Tuesday as investors looked to mid-tier financial and commodity shares for better returns, but gains were capped by profit taking, dealers said.
The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) benchmark 100-share index ended up 0.27 percent, or 37.15 points, at 13,700.47 points.
Volume rose to 318.14 million shares, compared with 147.84 million shares traded on Monday.
“Most activity was from high net-worth individuals in mid-cap shares. There was a lack of institutional activity today,” said Shuja Rizvi, a dealer at Al-Hoqqani Securities Ltd.
Among the most active companies, financial group Jahangir Siddiqui rose 5 percent to 21.72 rupees, Azgard Nine gained 12 per cent to 9.31 rupees, and cement giant D.G.Khan Cement shed 0.8 per cent to end at 37.75 rupees.
In the currency market, the rupee ended firmer at 90.49/54 to the dollar, compared with Monday's close of 90.63/68 to the dollar amid a lack of import payments.
The rupee has also been supported recently by remittances from overseas Pakistanis, rising by nearly a quarter to $8.59 billion in the first eight months of the 2011/12 fiscal year, compared with $6.96 billion in the 2010/11 period.
In February, remittances totaled $1.16 billion. In the money market, overnight rates rose to 9.75 per cent, compared with the previous day's close of 9.10 per cent amid lack of liquidity in the interbank market.
