KARACHI, May 2: As was expected the KSE-100 index finally crossed over the barrier of 19,000 points on Thursday to close at 19,034.53 points, posting gains of 52.11 points.

Investors were encouraged over the events on May 1 holiday, when the Chief of Army Staff assured that election would be held on time. The investor interest remained focused on the last leg of the difficult journey to elections on May 11.

Yet, several analysts pointed out that the country’s bourse was performing in line with global bullish trend in stocks as S&P 500 on the Wall Street had also peaked to all-time high, Australian shares closed at its highest level in five years; Indian shares were at one and half month high.

In the South Asian markets, Indonesia and Malaysia had hit historic high.

Analysts at Arif Habib Equity sales pointed out that the KSE had notched up gains of 52 points on Thursday despite the adverse development in telecom sector where the Competition Commission of Pakistan had imposed hefty fines on LDI operators.

The move depressed the sentiment in telecom shares led by PTC which made a low of Rs17 before closing at Rs17.46 at the end of the session.

Analysts suggested that the benchmark having achieved the target of 19,000 points, investors should reevaluate their portfolio.

Ovais Ahsan, analyst at JS Global stated that a large allocation to equity funds by a government institution over the week ensured interest in the market while result season also continued to invite investor interest in blue chip names.

This was corroborated by the figures released by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan on Thursday, which showed massive purchases worth $2.54 million by ‘mutual funds’ that day, which augmented the consistent net buy by the funds over the last week.

Foreign portfolio investment on Thursday stood at $1.11 million.

In the market report for the month of April, Abdul Azeem analyst at Invest Capital mentioned that net foreign inflows stood at $28 million in Apr-13 translating into a cumulative amount of $98m for CY13TD.

With the increase of 5.2pc MoM (939pts) KSE-100 reached its all-time high level of 18,982 at the end of month (April 2013) on closing basis. However, the average daily shares traded dropped by 11pc MoM to 176m shares as activity thinned in the third tier shares.

Better than expected corporate results mainly in cement, textile and some of the banking scrips were the major factors behind the rising trend in the index during April.

Other analysts maintained that resilience of the market was evident by the KSE gains in April regardless of a deteriorating law and order situation. Sentiments were fairly robust during results season.

Volume of trade on Thursday was 147m shares, a quarter lower than the Tuesday’s turnover at 195m shares.

Trading value declined by Rs694m to Rs4.178bn, from Rs4.872bn. Market capitalisation rose by Rs23bn to Rs4.687 trillion, from Rs4.664tr.

Among the 10-top volume leaders, Fauji Cement with 26m shares gained 24 paisa to close at Rs9.10, TRG Pakistan added 64 paisa to Rs10.18 on 20m shares, PTCL dipped by 46 paisa to Rs17.46 on 8m shares, Wateen Telecom declined 24 paisa to Rs5.04 on 7m shares, Maple Leaf Cement was up by 25 paisa to Rs18.79 on 6m shares, Soneri Bank gained 41 paisa to Rs7 on 5m shares.

Engro Corporation was again under pressure on gas supply issues with the stock taking a plunge of Rs2.22 to Rs132.02 on 5m shares and Dawood Hercules was up 72 paisa to Rs55.48 on 5m shares.