KARACHI: Stocks snapped the five-day losing streak on Tuesday as the KSE-100 index recovered 487.39 points, or 1.11 per cent, to settle at 44,563.

Blue-chips that have fallen to attractive valuations caught investors’ fancy with buying seen in top-tier scrips for the entire session. Bargain hunters were active in banks, fertiliser, cement and technology shares.

On the news front, investors took heart from the Covid positive ratio slipping below 9pc after a continuous rise in recent weeks. Also reports of agreements signed for the procurement of 30m doses of vaccine was taken as a positive that could stave off the lockdowns that would hamper industrial and business activities.

Moreover, likely renegotiation with IMF on tariffs and reconsideration of corporate taxes to support higher growth rate for FY22; strong financial results in major sectors and OMC sales registering growth of 19pc year-on-year to reach 15.8m tonnes in 10MFY21 pointed to the possibility of higher earnings in next quarters. International oil prices bounced overnight that helped E&P companies to gather some of the lost ground.

In the market related news, the resolution of roll-over uncertainty in the actively traded TRG scrip helped investors to take a positive view on the stock resulting in the stock hitting upper circuit. The other stock on the technology sector, which has for long caught investors’ attention — Netsol — remained under pressure to close at lower circuit.

Stocks that provided the greatest support to the index upsurge included TRG, Lucky Cement, Habib Bank, Unity Foods and MCB Bank that cumulatively added 241 points to the benchmark index.

Companies and banks reduced their positions which were picked up by brokers proprietary trading and “other organisations’’.

The trading volume declined 8pc over the previous day to 221.5m shares while the traded value also dropped by 11pc to reach $65.8m. Top five volume leaders were Unity Foods, Telecard, Ghani Global, TRG and Hascol that accounted for almost half of the total turnover.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2021