Karachi: Stocks rebounded on Wednesday from a two-day sell-off as shares in oil and gas exploration companies and refineries rallied.
Foreign investors bought stocks worth $4.13 million, placing $3.7m in cement and $2.7m in banking stocks. The year-to-date foreign selling decreased to $135.77m.
The KSE-100 index advanced 138.99 points to 32,248.86. Early in the session the index witnessed spike of 1 per cent, but profit-taking saw it drift down to a gain of 0.43pc.
Traded volume stood at 226m shares valued Rs11bn below month-to-date average of 240m shares of Rs13bn. Third tier stocks remained in the limelight with JSCL, TRG and PAEL registering volumes of 27m, 18m and 17m shares, respectively.
Dealers on the sales desk at Topline Securities observed that the rising international oil prices triggered rally in oil stocks. As a result OGDCL and PPL rose by 1.5pc, while POL added 1.2pc. Refineries also continued the run up after posting healthy results for 9MFY15.
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Cement stocks remained under pressure on investors’ fears of price war among producers. Lucky Cement was down 1.3pc, DGKC lower by 1.5pc and ACPL slipped by 3.2pc as investors opted to book profits. EFoods reached its upper circuit on the back of strong earnings expectations.
Analyst Ahsan Mehanti commented that stocks closed bullish led by oil scrips after Brent rose above $58/barrel on US shale report and Mideast tension. Dismal earnings in telecom sector weakened the sentiments in the quarter end earnings announcement session. Investor interest in second and third tier stocks on speculations ahead of earnings results due this week played a catalyst role in bullish activity at KSE.
