KARACHI: Bulls re-entered the market with a vengence on Wednesday, tossing the KSE-100 index up by 362.38 points to an all-time high at 29,458.15. The rally was effectively led by the foreign investors.

After a tiny sale of $2.63 million worth stocks in the earlier two days, the market witnessed foreign portfolio inflow in the massive sum of $4.65m on Wednesday, which powered several oil and gas and banking stocks to their ‘upper circuit’. Volume in terms of shares climbed 2pc with Jah Sidd Co replacing the several days of Lafarge’s rule as the volume leader.

Following two days of consolidation and flat trading, the strong run-up in stock prices on Wednesday caught the market by surprise, although it provided opportunity to several brokers and analysts crow over their prediction of the 30,000 level for the market.

Samar Iqbal, Assistant Vice President at Topline Securities commented that most of the leading banks, such as UBL, ABL, BAHL, NBP and MEBL closed at upper 5pc upper limit, while MCB gained 4pc. The pre-result rally was seen in ATRL and POL as the Attock group would announce results on Thursday. Renewed interest was also seen in PSO and NML.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp stated that stocks closed all time high on renewed foreign interest in oil and banking stocks as the top rating agencies, S&P and Moody’s had indicated possibility of improved ratings of the country, based on performance.

Speculations ahead of quarter-end earning announcements and strong rupee appreciation against dollar amid expectations for major foreign exchange inflows on Eurobond receipts and 3G/4G telecom licence auctions on April 23, played a catalyst role in bullish activity at KSE.