KARACHI: The bulls took over control of the market on the last trading day of the rollover week.

It propelled the KSE-100 index up by 329.07 points or 0.76 per cent to settle for the prolonged week-end at 43,416.77. The market has managed to recover 500 points from the 860 points it conceded in the earlier three days.

The significant feature of trading on Thursday was the investor participation in blue-chip stocks that reflected in the traded value of the shares which soared to 3.6-year high at Rs42.3 billion; the figure represented the highest value traded since May 31, 2020.

Several other analysts also attributed the market upward dash to the smooth roll over of December futures` contract, where 50pc of position was rolled over as of Wednesday’s close.

Although individuals considered it wiser to wait for the upcoming week to take fresh positions due to the growing fear in Europe over the second strain of Covid-19 which was thought to be more contagious. Companies however kept their faith on the market as foreign and local investors could commence new year buying of shares after Christmas and New Year.

Figures released by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan showed massive sell-off by foreign investors in the sum of 13.17 million. Local individuals also decided to book profit and sold shares worth $10.97m.

However, all of the liquidity was wiped off by local corporates who purchased shares of the value of $24.8m. The buying mainly by companies was seen all across the board.

Cement, technology and banks saw rallies in share prices. The overnight jump in international crude oil prices helped exploration & production stocks stage dec­ent recovery, however, regular profit booking kept the stock prices increase in check.

Cement sector performed comparatively better on the back of healthy dispatches. Cherat, Gharibwal, and Lucky closed higher on the sector.

Traded volumes jumped 50pc over the previous day to 571m shares. Moreover, Habib Bank Ltd, up 0.1pc, Lucky Cement 3.6pc, MCB Bank Ltd 0.4, Hub Power Company Ltd 0.6pc, Oil and Gas Development Company 0.7pc and United Bank Ltd 0.9pc were the top movers today.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2020