KARACHI: The stock market remained buoyant for the second day of the rollover week with the individuals, mutual funds and companies lapping up shares mainly on the cement, chemicals, and oil & gas marketing companies sectors.

Technology sector continued to garner investor interest with leading gains in shares of Netsol Tech­nologies and TRG Pakistan.

The market opened in the green and the KSE-100 index hit intraday high by 310 points, though it retreated a little to close with addition of 199.74 points, or 0.43 per cent, at 46,287.38.

Cement stocks were the first to turn green on the back of reports of price increases in the Northern region. Other positives that put the concerns of rollover week and the political noise behind included rumours about the finalisation of agreement between the government and IPPs; the uptick in international oil prices; the talks of ECC taking up the case of revision of OMC dealer margins and Textile Policy in its meeting on Wednesday.

Some fertiliser stocks performed well on the back of increase in DAP prices. The discernible drop in new Covid-19 cases and recorded deaths also elated investor sentiment. The progress over the procurement of vaccine would provide further relief to the public.

Sector-wise, cement added 94 points to the index climb; technology 43 points; oil & gas marketing companies 35 points; chemicals 30 points and E&P 22 points.

Scrips that provided major support to the index included TRG which added 37 points, PSO 26 points, Pioneer Cement 22 points; Lucky Cement 21 points and Pakistan Oilfields 17 points — the five stocks contributing 123 points to the index.

Foreign investors again offloaded stocks worth $2.21m on Tuesday. The traded volume increased 28pc over the earlier day to 603m shares while the the traded value rose 27pc to Rs26.8bn. Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include JSBL, TRG, Fauji Fertiliser, Hascol and Unity Foods, which formed 33pc of total volume.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2021