KARACHI: Stocks extended rally into the second day underpinned by thriving global markets; upsurge in international oil prices and the local investors’ attempt to be the first to buy at attractive levels brought about by the heavy plunge in shares the previous week.

The KSE-100 index took off to a flying start and without once looking back hit the intraday high by 335 points and closed with a gain of 314.69 points (0.93 per cent) at 34,052.61, knocking off the barrier of 34,000.

The volume remained quite close to the previous day, though on the lower size of the average turnover, which was attributed by analysts to institutional investors as they rebalance portfolios to marked-to-market before the close of financial year on June 30.

Foreigners sold stocks worth $2.20 million which were picked up mainly by insurance companies. Investors were also encouraged by a Topline Securities’ report that highlighted the day-on-day decline in Covid-19 cases in seven out of the last nine days, from 6,825 on June 13 to 3,708 on June 22.

Among exploration and production, Oil and Gas Development Company, Pakistan Oilfields and Pakistan Petroleum remained favourites, aided by an upward move in international crude prices. Similarly, Pakistan State Oil and Shell in the oil and gas marketing saw shares rise.

Banking stocks also edged higher as some traders were selling optimism over a cut in policy rate if the inflation figure for June turned out to be on the lower side.

Cement shares continued their run up while in the fertiliser sector, Fauji Bin Qasim and Fauji were gainers.

The volume slipped 0.8pc over the earlier day to 160.6m shares while traded value also declined by 9pc to reach $33.5m. Scrips that contributed significant points to the index included Fauji Fertiliser, up 1.3pc, OGDC 2.3pc, Habib Bank 0.1pc, Hub Power 1.9pc, MCB 0.3pc, Pakistan Petroleum 0.9pc, Lucky Cement 1.3pc and Pakistan Oilfields 0.7pc.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2020