KARACHI, Feb 17: Stocks on Friday staged a broad recovery followed by heavy foreign and local buying in leading oil stocks and bank shares amid an actively traded weekend session, signalling the continuation of the bull-run.

Despite being overvalued, PSO, Pakistan Oilfields, Attock Petroleum and OGDC, remained hot favourites, pushing the index to new high of 11,353 points or 1.5 per cent, adding Rs46bn to the market capital at Rs3,238.025 billion.

Owing to a peaceful protest strike against the blasphemous cartoons in foreign papers, the attendance in the market was thin as staff members of many brokerage houses could not reach their offices.

“Massive buying at the weekend session amid tense city situation reflects that investors are not inclined to be overawed by the negative external factors and are relying on positive market fundamentals”, brokers said.

The KSE 100-share managed to finish fully recovered from the previous lows as renewed heavy buying in the leading oil shares evoked a lot of sympathetic covering purchases on some other selected counters, notably bank and cement.

It finally ended at 11,365.63, up by 175.82 points or 1.57 per cent as compared to 11,176.81 a day earlier, reflecting the relative strength of the leading base shares under the lead of OGDC and Pakistan Petroleum.

“Already ruling around inhibiting levels on the strength of higher earnings and good dividend, oil stocks may have the potential to rise further”, a leading analyst Faisal Abbas said, adding “but why foreign buyers are eyeing them tells a different story.”

No one could dispute the fact that the banking sector has made a tremendous growth over the last two years and so did cement sector and both are coming out with handsome dividends but most of them are overvalued.

“The investors are now in search of low-priced issues having potential to rise and ensuring higher capital gains, heavy buying in them, notably Fauji Cement, Telecard and TRG Pakistan is based on this perception,” dealers said.

Leading gainers were led by Pakistan Oilfields and Attock Petroleum, up Rs27.35 and Rs19.95, followed by Jahangir Siddiqui & Co, and its capital market fund, National Bank, Thal, PSO, Pakistan Petroleum, Rafhan Maize and Arif Habib Securities, which posted gains ranging from Rs8.95 to Rs18.

Losers were led by Al-Ghazi Tractors on selling triggered by lower final dividend and Unilever Pakistan, off Rs18.90 and Rs32.10 respectively. Other prominent losers included IGI Insurance, Fazal Textiles, Mari Gas, Millat Tractors and Ferozsons Lab, which suffered fall ranging from Rs7.90 to Rs9.

Trading volume rose to 539m shares from the previous 534m shares as gainers held a modest lead over the losers at 171 to 164, with 43 shares holding on to the last levels.

OGDC topped the list of most actives, up by Rs4.65 at Rs153.15 on 128m shares, followed by Pakistan Petroleum, Rs13.10 at Rs276.05 on 42m shares, National Bank, higher by Rs9.95 at Rs273 on 36m shares, Pakistan Oilfields, higher by Rs27.35 on 30m shares, PTCL, steady 65 paisa at Rs66.80 on 25m shares and PSO, higher by Rs12.30 at Rs430.80 on 17m shares.

Other actives included Sui Southern Gas, firm by Rs1.60 on 30m shares, Fauji Cement, steady by 40 paisa on 27m shares, Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim, up by 25 paisa on 22m shares and D.G.Khan Cement, up by 40 paisa on 16m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: OGDC also led the list of actives on this counter, up by Rs4.80 at Rs153.80 on 39m shares followed by Pakistan Petroleum, higher by Rs13.15 at Rs276.90 on 20m shares and National Bank, up by Rs9.20 at Rs273.