KARACHI, May 17: Shares rebounded on the stock market on Friday with the KSE-100 index recovering 120.43 points to close at 20537.03 points.

The market capitalisation based KSE-30 index gained 46.89 points to finish at 15921.28 points.

On the equity sales desk of Topline Securities, Samar Iqbal observed that after some correction on Thursday, the market rebounded mainly led by cement stocks.

Fauji Cement, Pioneer Cement and D.G.Khan Cement rallied in anticipation that the Government would make higher allocation for public sector development programe (PSDP) in the next budget.

Equity dealer at brokerage Sherman Securities stated that the market started out on a flat note but subsequent heavy buying in oil and gas, power and textile sectors and some of the cement companies pushed stock prices up.

Khalil Usmani at JS Global commented that the market continued with its upbeat momentum.

Indpendent Power Producers (IPP) remained in the limelight as the newly elected government was thought to aim at resolving power crisis in the country on a priority basis.

PSO also closed in the green as the investors gained confidence that the the biggest oil marketing company would be big beneficiary in case the circular debt issue was resolved.

Foreign interest kept the activity going in the oil & gas and banking sector. Cement stocks were the star performers during the day.

Foreign funds continued to be bullish on Pakistan stocks.

On Friday, foreign portfolio inflow stood in the sum of $5.63 million. It was followed by net buying by companies of $1.36 million worth stocks and other organisations picking up shares valued at $0.93 million.

On the ‘sell’ side, banks offloaded stocks worth $3.02 million and mutual funds $0.44 million.

Individuals decided to take profit ahead of the two day holiday, in the face of an uncertain political situation. They disposed of stocks worth $4.45 million.

In all, 381 stocks came up for trading on Friday, with gainers at 242, over twice the losers at 113 stocks.

Another 26 shares remained unchanged.

The turnover on Friday stood at 372 million shares, representing improvement of 15pc over 324 million shares traded the day earlier. Trading value increased by 8pc to Rs9.103 billion, from Rs8.399 billion. Market capitalisation was up by Rs22bn to Rs4.989tr on Friday, from Rs4.967tr on Thursday.

The two biggest gainers for the day were Rafhan Maize Products up by Rs222.40 to Rs4670.40, followed by Bata (Pak) up Rs84.50. On the losing side, Colgate Palmolive plunged by Rs100 to Rs1900 and Fazal Cloth Mills down by Rs5.41 to Rs102.94.

All the 10-top scrips on the volume leaders’ list closed in positive territory. The third-tier Bank of Punjab saw the highest volume of 49 million shares, up by 25 paisa to Rs1.75.

The next five stocks in respect of highest turnover were from the cement sector. All the five showed increase in their stock prices.

Fauji Cement on 31m shares gained 26 paisa to Rs10.72; Lafarge Cement rose by 75 paisa to Rs7.08 on 23m shares; Dewan Cement posted gains of 57 paisa to Rs6.06 on 19m shares; Maple Leaf Cement closed at ‘upper circuit’ with gain of Re1 to Rs20.35 on 18m shares.

D.G.Khan Cement was strong with a gain of Rs1.60 to Rs75.47 on 9m shares; Nimir Industrial Chemicals edged higher by 38 paisa to Rs4.50 on 8.9m shares; Another third-tier stock Pervez Ahmed Securities added 31 paisa to Rs3.56 on 9m shares; Jah.Sidd.Co was higher by 20 paisa to Rs12.36 on 8m shares and Nishat (Chunian) rallied by Rs1.54 to Rs50.19 on 8 million shares.