KARACHI: Stocks rallied on Wednesday with the KSE-100 index recording gains of 217.59 points (0.64 per cent) to close at 34,061.42 points.

The activity was seen on the back of better-than-anticipated results and smooth rollover of futures contracts.

Traded volume increased by 29pc to 163.8 million shares, while value rose by 16pc to Rs9.4 billion over the earlier day.

Foreigners were again major sellers of $4.3m worth stocks.

“In the last four sessions, foreigners have sold shares worth $16.5m with major selling in banks ($8.2m),” calculated analyst at Topline Securities.

PSO closed at its upper-limit (5pc) after posting better-than-expected first quarter results, while results of DGKC enabled the stock to add 1.5pc to its value.

Dealers on sales desk of Global Securities stated that the market finally managed to break-away from its sluggish trend witnessed during the past few days as it opened on a positive note, gaining 150 points during the initial 30 minutes. The index found support from PSO.

Moreover, FFC (up 2.5pc), DAWH (5pc), and HUBC (1.2pc) also contributed 97 points towards the index. Retail favourites continued to dominate the volumes chart.

Ahmed Saeed Khan at JS Global said that rally was witnessed on the back of better-than-expected results in the fertiliser, cement and banking sectors.

The big five banks closed comfortably in the green zone, while top performers in the sector were ABL (2.73pc), FABL (2.69pc) and NBP (1.35pc).

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Haib Corp commented that uncertainty in global commodities invited late session profit-taking in oil, fertilisers and textile stocks. Trade remained in leveraged stocks amid falling borrowing costs.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2015

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