KARACHI: Bulls retur­ned with a vengeance on Thursday and tossed the KSE-100 index over the 37,000-level to see it settle at 37,001.44 with a gain of 322.41 points (0.88 per cent).

Market capitalisation increased by Rs72 billion as the index’s march towards north only after a day’s break following a 13-session winning streak surprised investors who quickly seized upon the opportunity to buy. In doing so, they set aside the fear of a possibly dismal upcoming corporate quarterly financial results.

However, market strategists did not think the movement as a miracle for the benchmark since it was still down 11pc from the start of 2020.

The benchmark started in the positive and reached intraday high by 350 points without once slipping into the red. Investor participation remained massive as volume increased by 23pc over the previous day to 402.4 million shares. Traded value also rose 13pc to $96.2m.

Foreign selling slowed to $2.42m. Mutual funds, individuals and insurance companies picked up main board stocks. Cement sector, which posted the highest volume of 66.5m shares, had many reasons to lead the rally. Inauguration of Bhasha Dam, optimism with respect to government housing scheme as well as talks of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects combined to strengthen investors’ enthusiasm over growth of cement sales going forward.

Major movers in the sector included DG Khan, Fauji, Lucky, Maple Leaf and Kohat. Exploration and production saw price gains in the three major scrips Pakistan Petroleum, Pakistan Oilfields and Oil and Gas Development Company as crude prices edged higher in the international market. Automobile stocks hit the sky as investors’ enthusiasm grew on revival of demand on steep drop in Covid-19 cases. Banks edged higher in the lead of Habib with the sector receiving instructions from the SBP to increase their housing and construction sector loan allocation to at least 5pc of their private credit portfolio.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2020