KARACHI: Bulls went completely berserk at the stock market on Friday tossing the KSE-100 index up by 498.29 points, or 1.52pc, to six-week high at 33,234.73 points.

The major trigger that threw market into massive activity was the euphoria created by the news of Chinese President Xi Jinping visit to Pakistan next week with the prospect of launch of energy and infrastructure projects worth $46 billion.

Volumes traded topped 400m shares, not seen since Dec 3, 2014.

Trading value rose to 10-week high at Rs19bn. Foreign investors were major buyers on Friday with net purchases of $11.99m; the overseas investment picked up banking stocks worth $11.5m; oil and gas $3.4m and chemicals $1.8m. The foreign inflow was offset to a large extent by sell-off by banks of $12.57m.

Samar Iqbal at Topline Securities stated that heightened activity was seen in cement stocks as investors believe that major developments project would be signed between Pakistan and China.

Lucky and Fauji Cement closed at their ‘upper limit’ while DGKC rose by 4pc. Oil stocks also joined the bandwagon on further appreciation in international oil prices.

The heavyweight OGDCL gained 2.5pc, PPL was up by 4pc and POL rose by 2pc and ATRL rallied by 4.8pc.

Impressive March results of HMB and SNBL raised hopes of better March earnings for other banks. MCB Bank rallied by 4.4pc while UBL added 2pc to its value.

During the week, the stocks gained 884 points, or 2.7pc, to extend the positive market momentum into the third week.
Average daily volumes improved by 23pc week-over-week to 296m shares.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2015

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