KARACHI: Bulls exten­ded the overnight rally on Friday with the KSE-100 index adding 529.82 points (1.27 per cent) to settle at 42,088.

The addition capped the strong weekly gains to 2,241 points (5.6pc).

The volume stood at 261m shares, up from 232m shares a day ago while the traded value also rose to Rs13 billion, from Rs11.5bn. According to figures released by the NCCPL, sell-off by foreign investors of $5.30m worth stocks was absorbed by banks which bought equity of net $5.50m.

Investors were encouraged by the progress and some clarity on legal issues faced by the former prime minister and expectations of a relief package for the market during the proposed stock market stakeholders’ meeting with the officials of the Finance Ministry on Saturday or early next week.

Elixir Securities stated that the morning session saw somewhat limited activity and range-bound trading where most volume went through in small and mid cap plays. However, from the onset of afternoon session, the KSE-100 index saw a sharp climb upward helped by gains in blue-chips across major sectors on reported local buying. The index made intraday high by 598 points.

According to Intermarket Securities, the contribution to upside came from SNGP, which went up 5pc, HBL 1.53pc, MCB Bank 2.03pc, Hubco 2.17pc and PPL 1.54pc, adding 167 points. On the flip side, Nestle fell 1.16pc and POL 0.82pc, taking away 23 points.

Analyst Maaz Mulla at JS Global commented that the positive sentiment in the market could be attributed to attractive valuations of the KSE-100 index stocks.

E&P sector gained on the back of rising international crude oil prices.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2017