KARACHI: Stocks were range-bound on Thursday with the KSE-100 index oscillating both ways, though finally settling with a nominal gain of 21.88 points at 34,408.74.

Most market participants thought that the tone of the market was bullish.

Foreign investors however continued to trim portfolio with net sale of $3.21 million worth equity on Thursday.

“Going forward, the trend of the market will depend on two factors: political and economy,” said Raza Jafri, head of equity sales and research at AKD Securities.

Nasim Beg, Vice-Chairman MCB Arif Habib Savings, said that the fundamentals of the market were strong which could help stocks move northwards, but he cautioned that investors should focus on individual companies because relying solely on the oil and gas heavyweight index could be misleading.

Analysts at JS Global observed that the market witnessed a volatile session with lacklustre volumes due to the political unrest. Volumes on Thursday dec­reased to 206m shares from 234m shares traded the previous day.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said that the index on Thursday was led by energy and banking stocks ahead of major earnings announcements and a positive earnings outlook.

Oil stocks were battered after WTI crude fell below $47 per barrel.

“Energy stocks remained in limelight on falling oil prices and banking sector on rising spreads,” analyst said.

The imposition of 5 per cent duty on CRC imports positively impacted local steel industry.

Brokerage Sunrise Capital in its daily report pointed out that cement sector remained bullish on Thursday as CHCC, DGKC, FCCL, MLCF, LPCL appreciated by 3.1pc, 0.96pc, 1.53pc, 2.25pc and 1.13pc.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2015

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