KARACHI: Stocks ex­ten­ded the winning streak for the sixth straight session on Thursday as the benchmark KSE-100 index gained 247 points, or 0.56 per cent, to close at record 44,742.

The index has managed to notch aggregate gains of 2,123 points in the six-day bull run. But what most investors and analysts did not notice was the fact that on Thursday the market capitalisation of the Pakistan Stock Exchange crossed Rs9 trillion. The market is now worth $84 billion.

Overall, the volume of shares traded fell 22pc over a day ago to 368 million shares on Thursday, while the trading value dropped 24pc to Rs16 billion. Investor interest remained mainly in small-cap stocks, such as the Bank of Punjab, NIB Bank, Aisha Steel and Treet Corporation.

At mid-day the index reflected slight weakness as it dipped into an intra-day low of 47 points owing to the concerns over Supreme Court hearings, but recovered off its lows to close in the black. Lucky Cement, Dewan Motors and Dewan Cement Ltd (DCL) touched their upper circuits as Lucky disseminated information of its diversification plans into the auto industry and potential acquisition of DCL’s Hattar plant.

Other major index propellers included Habib Bank which rose 1.48pc, United Bank 2.07pc, Mari Petroleum 5pc and Dawood Hercules 3.81pc. Most banking sector scrips closed negative including MCB Bank which succumbed to profit-taking after gaining interest a day earlier on the news of its amalgamation with the NIB Bank.

“Response from autos, banks, cements, multi-utilities and steel was largely mixed while performance of oil and gas, textiles, fertilisers, power and glass was below par,” commented analysts at Intermarket Securities.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2016