KARACHI: Stocks continued its upward journey on the last trading day of the week with the benchmark KSE-100 index adding 153.29 points to close at an all-time high of 36,694.26.

The rally started with the opening bell as frantic buying sent the index to intraday high by 150 points. “The day’s momentum was likely supported by the conclusion of roll-over week,” said dealers at brokerage Global Securities.

Trading volume stood down to 200 million shares from 213m shares that changed hands a day ago. Small investors and bargain hunters accumulated retail favourites which were led by K-Electric with volume of 18m shares. Value of shares traded decreased by Rs0.25m to Rs9.430bn. Individuals were the major net buyers of stocks worth $5.23m. Foreign investors sold shares valued at $1.91m.

After their recent battering after the announcement of discount rate cut, commercial banks regained attention of value hunters with most top banks closing in the green. UBL gained 1.18pc, MCB 0.63pc and HBL 0.36pc cumulatively contributed 37 points towards the index.

Dealers observed that on the E&P sector, POL rose 3.65pc with the stock likely supported by institutional investors. HASCOL hit the upper circuit after news re­ports revealed that the co­m­pany has plans to increase its storage capacity at Port Qasim and to also increase its terminal count from 320 to 400. FML, rose 5pc, continued with its winning streak.

Analyst Arhum Ghous at JS Global said GHGL up 2.27pc gained on the back of material information disseminated in the market that its Amber Pharma Glass Furnace facility at Landhi, commercial area had started its commercial operations.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp commented that stocks closed on new highs led by oil scrips on higher global crude prices.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2016

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