KARACHI: Bulls entered the market with a vengeance on Tuesday, tossing the KSE-100-index up by a record 1,306.83 points or 4.52 per cent to 30,233.87 points.

It was a complete turnaround from the huge losses suffered by the market a day ago as most shares across all sectors contributed to a massive rally.

ENGRO, PAEL and MLCF with good volumes closed at 5pc ‘upper limit’ as investors tried to rebuild their portfolios.

Leading banks, like MCB, UBL, NBP and ABL, also closed at their ‘upper circuit’.

Also read: Stock market plunges by 1,031 points

The market got off to a storming start as institutions and individuals scrambled to pick up stocks that had touched attractive valuations after the benchmark index had tumbled 9pc in the previous five sessions and lost 17pc in eight weeks.

Although the spectacular rise in stock values on Tuesday was as unpredictable as the massive fall the day before, most market participants attributed the change of heart on the part of investors to return of the foreign investors with net buying on Monday as well as to the smooth settlement of futures contracts.

Among local participants, individuals, banks and companies were major buyers but mutual funds continued to sell on fear of further fall after a brief respite.

The figures released by the NCCPL in the evening did dilute the investors’ joy as the foreigners were noted to have sold stocks worth net $5,61m on Tuesday.

However, several market participants argued that it was unlikely to pour cold water over the investors’ sentiments.

Analyst Ahmed Seed Khan at JS Global observed that on Tuesday the banking sector saw most of its oversold scrips hit the ‘upper circuit’, including BOP, AKBL, HBL, MCB, ABL, UBL and BAHL.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2015

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