KARACHI: The KSE-100 index staged a robust recovery of 422.35 points (1.10 per cent) to close the last trading day of the week at 38,645.90 after the Supreme Court announced judgments in two key cases.

Activity picked up pace with dismissal of the apex court’s decision in favour of PML-N in the Hudaibiya Mills’ case and continued with Imran Khan’s acquittal coupled with Jahangir Tareen’s ineligibility.

“The relative calm in the exchange rate helped benchmark KSE-100 index maintain positive direction,” said analysts at AHL Research. The index intraday topped 701 points in a knee-jerk reaction after the Friday prayer break, but it pulled back later in the session. The KSE-100 index represented erosion of 18pc from the start of 2017 and stood 27pc below its all-time intraday high of 53,127.24 touched on May 25.

The volume went up by 50pc over the previous day’s 93m shares to 140m shares on Friday. The traded value showed significant appreciation of 122pc to Rs9.11bn, from Rs4.10bn.

Dealers said that the sectors that drove the market on include fertiliser, commercial banks and oil & gas.

Intermarket Securities stated that the major contribution to the index upside came from Engro Corp, which went up 3.98pc, HBL 2.3pc, Dawood Hercules 4.99pc, DG Khan Cement 4.3pc and PPL 1.18pc, adding 200 points.

JS Global market report mentioned that Mughal Steel gained 4.54pc and ASTL 3.07pc on the back of news reports suggesting increase in price of steel bars.

In the textile sector, Nishat Mills was up 2.05pc as it announced the ground breaking of Hyundai Nishat Motors and commencement of production of new spinning plant this month.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2017