KARACHI: Bulls staged a comeback on Monday, tossing the KSE-100 index up 945 points (2.37 per cent) to close at 40,791.

Investors’ hopes were rekindled after a delegation of stockbrokers, mutual fund managers and other stakeholders met Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi over the weekend.

Meeting participants demanded that the government should set up a support fund of Rs20 billion to bail out the stock market.

The premier gave directives to establish a committee, which would submit proposals to revive the market. “A similar fund pulled the stock market out of the 2008 crisis. It can be equally useful in rejuvenating the market now,” said a stockbroker.

While foreign and most local institutions and individuals bought stocks, mutual funds kept on offloading shares, although on a smaller scale. Brokers also posted net sales of equities.

The volume declined 19pc over the previous session to 125 million shares while the traded value also dropped 15pc to Rs6.02bn.

According to Topline Securities, top index-point contributing stocks were Oil and Gas Development Auth­ority, which went up 3.4pc, Engro Corporation 4.7pc, Lucky Cement 5pc, Pakistan Oilfields 3.3pc, Pakistan Petroleum 2.3pc, Pakistan State Oil 4.1pc, Dawood Hercules 5pc, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines 5pc, Habib Bank 1.3pc and MCB Bank 1.8pc, adding 428 points.

The exploration and production sector gained 158 points as the Iraq-Kurdistan conflict and the possibility of new sanctions on Iran drove up oil prices.

Fresh buying was seen in the cement sector on rumours about a producers’ meeting in coming days to keep prices firm. As a result, the sector gained 146 points.

Banks and fertiliser companies cumulatively gained 252 points.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2017