KSE gains 139 points on fresh buying

KARACHI: Stock prices at Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) ended on a five-month high on Thursday led by the fertiliser and energy sector on expectations of strong corporate results, dealers said.

The Karachi Stock Exchange's benchmark 100-share index ended 1.12 percent, or 139.01 points, higher at12,508.42. The KSE-index closed at 12,577.61 on Jan. 19.

Turnover rose to 76.95 million shares, compared with 59.47million shares traded on Wednesday.

"Healthy earning expectations on the back of increased urea prices and handsome payout expectations kept FFBL (Fauji Bin Qasim) the volume leader," said Samar Iqbal, dealer at Topline Securities Ltd.

Corporate results for the year ending June 30 are due to be announced in the second week of July.

According to Invest Capital Investment Bank, FFBL is offering an attractive dividend yield of 17.6 percent for 2011.

FFBL ended 1.78 percent at 43.35 rupees. (Reuters)