KARACHI: Stocks raced forward on Tuesday as the KSE-100 index rallied by 143.31 points to close at 29,728.91.

Investors’ enthusiasm was at high pitch as the index made phenomenal intra-day gains of 283 points to touch the high at 29,869 points.

Still, before end of trading, the index pared gains as investors and traders chose to square their intra-day positions. On the other hand, all through the day, the benchmark did not step below the opening level, which gave an impression that the bulls were fully in command.

Also read: Stocks add 71 points on foreign buying

Foreign investors led from the front with net purchases of $3.76 million worth stock with $3.1m going into the oil and gas sector. The nervous participants such as mutual funds and individuals also shed their fears and bought shares worth $1.23m and $2.58m, respectively.

The market seemed to have thrown caution to the wind as worries over the political turmoil, the recent setback to the economy and the ravages caused by rain and floods were all but ignored.

Samar Iqbal, AVP Equity sales at Topline Securities said that the talks of government planning a policy of drug prices helped pharmaceutical companies to close high.

Car assembler stocks also rallied due to weakening of Japanese yen against the dollar.

Brokerage Foundation Securities wrote in a sales note: “Talks of flood tax like the one imposed in 2011-12 were doing the rounds, which could dent corporate earnings”.

The analysts also thought that expectations of a rate cut had been tamed to a large extent, as IMF review and progress on reforms seemed to be in the doldrums.

Analyst Fahad M. Ali at JS Global said that pharmaceutical sector continued to perform where Abbot Labs and Ferozsons Labs closed at their ‘upper circuit’.

Published in Dawn, September 10th , 2014