KARACHI, Feb 20: Energy stocks such as Oil and Gas Development Co Ltd (OGDCL) and Pakistan Oilfields (POL) pushed the country’s main equity market to a record high on Wednesday, with institutional buying witnessed in the cement sector as well, dealers said.

The KSE 100-share index ended 0.73 per cent, or 129.36 points, higher at 17,947.07 points. It made a fresh all-time high at 17,989.70 points and an intra day low at 17,817.71 points.

“Heavy weight OGDC, PPL and POL also saw improvement in share price.

Big cement companies like DG and Lucky cement also rallied in expectations that profit will further increase in this quarter,” said Samar Iqbal, a dealer at Topline Securities Ltd.

Turnover marginally rose to 267.2 million shares, compared with 266.24m shares traded on Tuesday but trading value increased by Rs1.3 billion to Rs9.2 billion from Rs7.9bn in the previous trading session.

Market capitalisation stood at Rs4.47 trillion from Tuesday’s Rs4.44tr.

“Blue-chips such as OGDC, MCB Bank and Engro Corp also attracted a lot of interest taking the KSE-100 index to 17,989 points.

The news that the Gas Sales Agreement is still in negotiation kept Engro in check as the basis on which the share price was moving is now questionable,” Arif Habib Equity Sales said in a note.

OGDCL, Pakistan’s largest listed company with market capital of $9bn, posted a profit of Rs49.2bn that equates to an earning per share of Rs11.45 in the first half of 2012-13, up 18.4 per cent from Rs9.67 in the same period last year.

The corporate result is also accompanied by interim cash dividend of Rs2 per share.

Most brokerage houses have maintained a ‘buy’ call on OGDCL.

OGDCL rose Rs1.43 to Rs209.02, POL ended Rs7.68 higher at Rs477.96 and MCB Bank gained Rs2.63 to close at Rs219.15.

The cement sector also came into the limelight as investor bought shares on hopes of strong corporate results for the quarter ending Dec. 31, due to be announced in the coming days.

Foreign investors continued to buy aggressively as they bought shares worth a net $1.77m on Wednesday, compared with buying a net $3.02m on Tuesday, bringing the total net buying for the month at $18.44m. Banks were the biggest buyers with equity worth $4.26m.

The biggest gainer was Nestle Pakistan which ended Rs99.99 higher to close at Rs4,900 followed by Colgate Palmolive which closed Rs75 higher at Rs1,575. UniLever Pakistan witnessed the biggest loss as it shed Rs23.90 to Rs10,358.60, followed by Indus Motor Co, which ended Rs6.55 lower at Rs304.45.

The KSE-30 index ended 0.89pc, or 129.11 points, higher at 14,715.67.

Out of the 359 companies traded, the value of 172 increased, 150 decreased while 37 remained unchanged.

The cement sector along with second and third tier shares once again dominated the 10 most active traded stocks: PTCL topped the list as it fell 14 paisa to Rs21.75 on turnover of 32.75 million shares, NIB Bank shed 22 paisa to Rs2.58 on 24.16m shares but Maple Leaf Cement rose 9 paisa to close at Rs17.68 on 16.51m shares.

Jahangir Siddiqui Co Ltd fell marginally by one paisa to Rs18.30 on 14.72m shares, Telecard Ltd decreased by 5 paisa to Rs5.10 on 14m shares and Fauji Cement gained 2 paisa to Rs7.86 on 12.57m shares.

DG Khan Cement ended Rs2.41 higher at Rs62.07 on 11.46m shares, Engro Corp rose 73 paisa to Rs104.16 on 10.72m shares and Sui North Gas closed 58 paisa lower at Rs21.62 on 9.85m shares.

Engro Foods Ltd gained Rs5.88 to close at Rs125.01 on volume of 9.24m shares.