KARACHI: Stocks continued to rally on Thursday with the KSE-100 index recovering 32,000 points level after three weeks.
On Thursday, the benchmark index gained 126.61 points (0.40pc) to close at 32,013.91 points. The market began on a subdued note as the index dipped to intra-day low by 177 points, but it soon bounced back.
Volume of shares traded stood at 201m shares of the value of Rs11.8 billion, down from 256m shares of Rs14.4bn traded the previous day.
Brokerage firm Topline Securities observed: “As per the latest KSE book building update, HBL base deal size of 250m shares has been covered on the third day. As a result, stock in HBL rallied 3pc, while other banks UBL and MCB were up 2.3pc and 1pc, respectively”.
Foreign investors bought net $2.12m worth stocks on Thursday with inflow into cement sector amounting to $1.4m and chemicals $1.1m, while opting out of banks stocks worth $1.5m.
With foreign investors back to buying, net foreign portfolio outflow stood reduced to $123.34m year-to-date, while in the ongoing month-to-date, there was net foreign buying of $7.75m.
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Among local participants, mutual funds purchased $2.94m of stocks. In the last five trading sessions, local mutual funds have bought shares worth $19.6m. Banks also were net purchasers of stocks valued at $2.96m.
On Thursday, Kohat Cement (KOHC) closed at its 5pc upper limit after it announced 9MFY15 earnings of Rs14.4 with a surprise interim cash dividend of Rs5 per share.
Oil stocks were weaker due to decline in international oil prices. Oil and gas sector with PSO, SHELL, PPL, HASCOL and APL all ended down by 2.0pc, 1.8pc, 0.5pc, 1.9pc and 0.3pc.
