KARACHI: Bulls continued to rampage through the stock market on Monday as the KSE-100 index made stunning gains for the fourth consecutive session.

It crossed the 50,000-point level for the first time in three months with massive gains of 403 points or 0.8 per cent to close at 50,112.

Institutional buying fuelled the rally with mutual funds in the lead. Foreign investors also bought stocks worth $4.2 million, a refreshing change from incessant selling.

The benchmark index plummeted 3,300 points or 7pc between Jan 17 and April 18 due to political uncertainty.

“Interestingly, what the index lost in three months was recovered in just four sessions as it raced at breakneck speed,” JS Global Chief Commercial Officer Khurram Schehzad said.

The volume rose 1pc over the last session to 400 million shares while the value drifted down 8pc to Rs22.2 billion.

Dealers at Topline Securities calculated that the maximum contribution to the index came from MCB Bank, which went up 3.9pc, followed by Oil and Gas Development Company 2.5pc, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines 4.9pc, Pakistan State Oil 3.3pc and The Searle Company 3.6pc. Hub Power went down 1.9pc along with Habib Bank 0.9pc, Nishat Mills 2.1pc, Pakistan Petroleum 0.7pc and Engro Fertilisers 1.4pc, eroding 105 points from the index.

Analysts at Intermarket Securities said the investors’ sentiment was tilted towards the steel sector on the expectation of robust earnings and sales coupled with expansion announcements.

They said autos will also be in focus because of the launch of new variants from Pak Suzuki and Honda Atlas Cars. Pharma­ceuticals will be in the spotlight as budget proposals call for reducing the customs duty on the import of all pharmaceutical raw materials.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2017