Karachi: Stocks continued to rally on Thursday which saw the bulls toss the KSE-100 index over the 34,500 level for the first time in four months.
The index advanced by 270.86 points (0.79 per cent) and settled at 34,594.70. Already month-to-date the market is up 4.6pc.
Traded volume was recorded at 381 million shares, up 15pc with total value at Rs.16.1 billion higher by 6pc over the earlier day. Major gainers during the day were shares in the oil and gas sector with OGDC, POL and PPL together contributing 99 points to the index.
“Institutional support was seen in FFBL and FFC, which increased 5.0pc and 3.6pc respectively, due to attractive valuations, while news on subsidy reduction from electricity traffic ignited investor interest in OMCs and IPPs as it may help government to reduce circular debt,” said dealers at Topline Securities.
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Foreign investors bought stocks worth $5.30m on Thursday with major inflow of $4.8m in fertiliser sector and $2.5m in cements.
Local institutional investors were also active as mutual funds continued to build portfolio with purchases of shares worth $4.55m while banks made another heavy sell-off valued at $9.93m.
Analyst Nauman Khan at Foundation Securities identified the SBP discount rate cut that has brought interest rates to record low; the federal budget though heavily tax laden was skewed towards growth of infrastructure with sustained investors’ interest in cement, steel and other building material and lastly the MSCI’s announcement of thoughts on putting Pakistan back into the Emerging Market category.
Murtaza Jafar, dealer equity capital markets at Silk Bank Limited commented that the index closed higher on the back of strong buying momentum in E&P names.
