KARACHI: With just five trading sessions remaining before Pakistan’s re-entry into the MSCI Emerging Market Index after eight years of exile, investors were excited.

Leading the KSE-100 index to touch intra-day high at 53,103 on Wednesday and close the session with third successive day of massive gains of 729.49 points (1.40 per cent) at a new all-time high of 52,876.46 points. The index has stormed up by an incredible 2,133 points in three successive days.

Wednesday’s session recorded the highest year-to-date trading volume of 606 million shares. The volume was up 87pc over the day’s earlier volume at 324m shares. Traded value surged 21pc to Rs24 billion from Rs20bn.

Power Cement led the volume leaders’ list after the company informed that a Letter of Credit for the supply of engineering equipment of complete cement plant from FL Smidth & Co had been established for the company’s brown field expansion project of 7,700 tonnes per day Clinker & Cement production line through a consortium of National Bank of Pakistan and Habib Bank Ltd.

Investor interest skewed towards MSCI eligible stocks, with HBL rising 1.16pc, MCB 2.08pc, UBL 1.13pc, LUCK 1.04pc and ENGRO 0.75pc, adding 215 points to the index. Energy caught the investor sentiments, with OGDC increasing 3.56pc, PPL 4.57pc, MARI 1.83pc, PSO 1.12pc, ATRL 1.75pc and SHEL 1.03pc, closing in the green.

POL rose 1.56pc after a filing with the KSE announcement of discovery at Mardakhel-2. The gains in oil stocks were underpinned by a rise in international crude prices hovering around $51 per barrel.

On the sector front, banks added 222 points, oil and gas exploration 156 points and fertiliser 88 points.

For all the exuberance, pragmatists suggested investors remained cautious due to the rollover week and the upcoming Budget FY18 announcement.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2017