KARACHI: Stocks continued to storm ahead on Wednesday with the KSE-100 index gaining 444.75 points (1.29 per cent) to close at 34,843.61.

Index heavyweights MCB Bank, Engro Corp, Hub Power and OGDCL contributed 210 points to the index gain. Traded volume incre­as­ed 8pc to 376 million shares of the value of Rs12.9 billion.

Foreigners bought and sold shares worth $10m and $8.1m with net buying at $1.82m; an inflow of $1.9m was seen in fertiliser sector. Among local participants, individuals took profit while companies bought $5.95m stocks.

Zubair Ghulam Hussain, head of equity sales at Foundation Securities, stated that prior to the year-end, liquidity was drying up due to redemptions by domestic equity funds. Faisal Shaji head of institutional sales at Standard Chartered Capital stated that KSE rallied after lower-than-expected Consu­mer Price Index (CPI) of 3.2pc for the month of June 2015. Moreover, on the political front, things were settling down.

HUBC rallied by 2.6pc after Supreme Court dismissed petition filed by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and maintained its decision in favour of the company. Sui Southern Gas (SSGC) and Sui Northern Gas (SNGP) gained 4.8pc and 4.9pc respectively amid rumours of change in UFG (Unaccounted for Gas) formula, observed dealers at Topline Securities.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp stated that the bullish sentiments remained at KSE amid record close led by second- and third-tier stocks on strong valuations. Specula­tions ahead of year-end results led the institutional interest in selected oil, banking and fertiliser stocks.

FBR’s withdrawals on regulatory duties on POL products, recovery in global stocks and commodities, and higher banking spreads played a catalyst role in bullish activity at KSE.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2015

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