KARACHI: Bulls appeared a little tired on Friday but they managed to extend the gaining streak to the 11th consecutive session, cementing the longest bull run witnessed in in 30 months, since January 2018. The KSE-100 index crawled up by 48.24 points (0.13 per cent) and settled for the weekend at 36,190.41.

The benchmark has galloped by 2,478 points (7.4pc) in the current market upsurge that was triggered by the 100 basis points cut in policy rate to 7pc that excited entrepreneurs to line up for bank credit to further their industrial plans. The market also showed resilience in the face of terrorist attack on the second session of the runaway market.

After massive gains in the index, the highest volume in six months and the heaviest traded value seen in three months witnessed a day ago, things were relatively quiet where the index remained range-bound in considerably reduced investor participation, possibly due to shortened hours on Friday.

The market remained range-bound, making an intraday high and low of 138 and 139 points, respectively. The volume stood at 293 million shares, against 467m that changed hands a day earlier. Traded value also decreased to Rs9.6bn, from Rs15.7bn while leaders included Unity Foods, Maple Leaf and TRG which cumulatively contributed over 67m shares.

Cement led the gainers where Maple Leaf, Pioneer, Cherat, Lucky and Fauji were the major movers for the day. The two recent favourites, exploration and production and pharmaceutical, succumbed to selling pressure with Pakistan Oilfields and Pakistan Petroleum pulling back in the former while Searle and Glaxo conceded some gains in the latter.

Scrip-wise, major positive contribution came from Lucky Cement, National Bank and Engro Corpora­tion as they cumulatively contributed 54 points to the index, whereas Pakistan Petroleum, TRG and OGDC pulled it down by 34 points.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2020