KARACHI: The stock market extended rally for the third straight day on Thursday with the benchmark KSE-100 index accumulating another 503.66 points (1.26 per cent) and close at 40,353.62.

It opened positive and remained bullish for all of the day with the index hitting intraday high by 562 points. The benchmark roared past the 40,000-level in the last hour. Traders said that greed of making gains overcame the investors’ fears of still visible political noise; rising inflation that could trigger interest rate hike and the upcoming Financial Action Task Force meeting. Out of 411 active issues, 240 were gainers, leading the 155 losers.

Mutual funds built fresh positions with purchases of $1.78 million after meeting the redemption requests. Some nervous unit holders calmed down after looking at return of the bull in the market and withdrew the earlier placed redemption orders. Among sectors, exploration and production stood out as major gainer with all four listed scrips ending in the green on account of rising international oil prices. Oil and gas marketing stocks also had a field day while cement also spearheaded the buying activity as investors were encouraged by the news flow hinting at the federal government deciding to release Rs270 billion for various ongoing and new development projects under the Public Sector Development Programme.

Investors also looked forward to reports of improved earnings in the upcoming Sept 30 post-coronavirus quarterly results. Brokers, banks and companies continued to pick up scrips still available at attractive valuations, while individuals who were still leveraged, sold to pay margin calls.

The volume increased 10pc over the previous day to 475.9m shares with almost of half of it contributed by mainly second tier stocks, Hascol, TRG, Maple Leaf and Bank of Punjab. Major scrip that contributed to the positive index close were identified by traders as Oil and Gas Development Company 62 points, Pakistan State Oil 46 points, Pakistan Petroleum 33 points, Pakistan Oilfields 29 points and Habib Bank 28 points. Fauji Fertiliser, Lucky Cement and United Bank were other significant gainers.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2020