KARACHI: The stock market witnessed a spectacular rally on Tuesday, after three consecutive sessions of losses and erosion of 1,974 points [including the previous week’s net loss of 1,221 points and Monday’s drop by 753 points].

The index started positive and remained in the green throughout the session. It touched intraday high by 930 points, before closing with gain of 856 points, or 1.97 per cent, at 44,405.

The massive recovery was cheered by the investors though the reason for the frantic buying was not fully understood.

There was that slight respite in the Covid-19 infection cases as the chairman of the NCOC believed that increased restrictions and broader lockdown had started showing results where the positive Covid ratio had started declining.

Some analysts said that the investors’ confidence had improved after the government’s commitment to curtail inflationary pressure, the vaccination drive against the pandemic and the possibility of Pakistan receiving further debt relief from G-20 countries till December also helped.

The major buyers were companies of the stocks worth $1.40m and mutual funds $1.65m. Individuals, brokers, foreign investors and banks reduced their positions further.

Total volume traded for the day was recorded at 306m shares where top contributors were TRG, Netsol, Unity Foods, ANL, Byco Petroleum and PRL.

The rally was led by the turnaround in the technology and refinery sectors which were at the heart of the recent carnage. Analysts at a major brokerage house said: “After Monday’s dismal performance, the total leverage dropped to Rs33bn with significant reduction in leverage levels of technology & refinery sectors stocks in recent time, thereby giving some breathing space to the investors.”

Buying activity was observed across the board with sector-wise performances from cement (165 points), technology (137 points), banks (97 points), E&P (53 points) and power (53 points).

Among scrips, the lead gainers were TRG (7.5pc), Lucky Cement (2.7pc), Hubco (2.3pc), HBL (1.6pc), System Ltd (3.3pc), Engro (1.2pc) and PSO (2.3pc) which together added 320 points to the index. PPL (1.2pc), POL (1.1pc) and OGDC (1.2pc) also closed higher.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2021