KARACHI: Stocks closed with gains on Friday as institutional investors decided to take positions, attracted by low valuations. The KSE-100 index closed higher by 234.46 points (0.52 per cent) at 45,294.39.

The broader benchmark remained volatile during the day, owing to continuous political uncertainty along with the news of detention of the SECP chairman by the FIA. The index touched intraday high of 322 and low of 512 points.

The market opened on a negative note and extended the earlier day’s dismal trend with low volumes in the first half of the trading session. A sharp recovery was seen in the second half. “Positivity came as the Supreme Court concluded the hearing of the Panamagate case and reserved its judgment”, commented analysts at JS Global.

The volume stood at 122 million shares down from earlier day’s 148m shares. Except International Steels and Sui Northern Gas, other top eight volume leaders were the second-tier stocks.

Major contribution to index upside came from MARI which gained 4.44pc, UBL 1.24pc, PPL 1.32pc, MTL 2.97pc and TRG 4.77pc, adding 110 points.

The reports of Rs185 billion loans to be paid off to DISCOs did not bring much impact to the power sector as scrips in the sector witnessed a mixed trend. Investors’ interest was seen in steel sector where ISL rose 3.10pc, INIL 2.10pc and ASL 1.34pc.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp stated that the stocks closed bullish after the government resolved to accept the verdict of the apex court in the Panama Papers case.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2017