KARACHI: Stocks continued to climb northwards on Wednesday, adding 123.45 points to the KSE-100 index which closed at 32,084.06 points.

The KSE-100 index was knocked down by 183 point in early trade, giving in to global equity market rout but later managed to shake-off the gloom. The index made intra-day high by 223 points, before shedding 100 points.

Traded volume increased by 2pc to 147.3m shares, while value declined 7pc to Rs8bn.

Dealers at Global Securities observed that the index found its major support from HBL (up 2.69pc), OGDC (1.03pc), MARI (3.75pc) contributing 88 points to the rise.

PAEL (up 0.66pc), after being ex-right topped the volume leaders with trading of 8m shares, followed by JSCL (up 0.27pc), FCCL (up 1.66pc) and TRG (down 0.58pc).

Cements gave in to selling pressure despite Nepra’s approval to cut electricity prices by Rs3.83 a unit. Fertilisers also failed to perform amid profit-taking and concerns pertaining to gas prices going forward.

Rally in banking stocks tapered down as BKTi index gained only 1pc. Yet, scattered gains continued in the sector on the back of unchanged policy rate and increase in private-sector lending’s by 9pc for July-December 2015-16.

HBL was the top performer in the sector. HCAR closed at its upper-limit (up 5pc) on the back of expectations of strong car sales.

“WTI prices jumped from $29.40 in the morning to $30.60 during the session which helped E&P companies to stage a decent comeback. MARI stood out amongst the rest and closed up 4.17pc,” said analysts at Intermarket Securities.

With EIA data, any positive surprise could help boost crude prices even further.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2016