KARACHI: Stocks managed to break a losing spell on Friday as the benchmark KSE-100 index rose by 119.69 points, or 0.25 per cent, to close at 48,409.
Hub Power Company led the market by contributing 61 points to the overall gains. Although trading remained volatile in the second session, the upside mainly came in the last half-hour when investors threw caution to the wind and bought stocks across various sectors.
Dealers could not advance convincing reasons for the change of heart on the part of investors who, spooked by uncertainties, had stayed away from the market.
A market strategist presumed that investor interest increased in the Friday session as it marked the last trading day for rebalancing of FTSE Global Equity Index Series Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan).
Earlier, FTSE in its semi-annual review included Habib Bank, Mari Petroleum, Searle, Engro Fertilisers, Fauji Cement and Nishat Mills Ltd from Pakistan in the above-mentioned index series.
Hammad Aman, equity sales manager at Topline Securities, pointed out that HBL (up 2.1pc) witnessed high volatility with highest volume traded since 2007 of 15.5 million shares.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said the stocks showed recovery as investors were enthused by the World Bank’s approval of $450m credit for socio-economic progress and receipt of $200m under the Coalition Support Fund.
The volume of shares traded during the day rose 17.7pc to 212m shares, but remained on the lower end against 10 days’ moving average of 230m shares. Traded value jumped 61.7pc to Rs16.5bn.
Besides, 36 scrips closed on their upper limit while none closed at its lower limit. Major index drivers were Hub Power Company, HBL, and Lucky Cement.
Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2017
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