KARACHI: Bulls dominated the stock market on Wednesday with the KSE-100 index up by 401.84 points (1.14 per cent) to close at 35,676.50.

Except for the flood losses, everything seemed to be going well, which went to boost investor sentiments.

Pakistan received $336 million in Coalition Support Fund which raised the foreign reserves to $19 billion.

The corporations were coming up with generally healthy results and payout. Yet, many market participants reckoned that as the index nears the 36,000-level, investors are likely to tread cautiously and switch to fundamentally strong stocks.

Volume declined to 353m from 363m shares traded a day ago but the trading value improved to Rs13.9bn from Rs12.3bn.

Silkbank (R) continued to attract small investors.

Foreign investors bought stocks worth $1.68m mainly in the oil and gas and fertiliser sectors.

Mutual funds deployed $3.91m from the pot of cash generated through heavy sales in the ‘capital protected funds’ during the previous days.

The global oil prices recovered from six-month lows which sent positive vibes in the oil sector.

“Winners in the sector were PPL up by 1.7pc; POL 1.77pc; OGDC 3.62pc and ATRL by 4.98pc,” commented analyst Ahmed Saeed Khan at JS Global.

Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim announced its results in line with market expectations, which attracted investors to Fatima Fertiliser that rose by 3.02pc and FFC by 1.69pc.

Brokerage Sunrise Capital pointed out that the BoP declined by 0.41pc, whereas NIB Bank gained 1.97pc.

Technology and communication sector witnessed activity with PTCL up by 1.66pc and TRG and Telecard down by 0.09pc and 3.53pc, respectively.

K-Electric and Kapco rose by 0.12pc and 1.10pc.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2015

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