KARACHI: Stocks roared ahead for the fourth consecutive day when the KSE-100 index jumped 511.65 points, or 1.11 per cent, to settle at 46,812.31. The ferocity of the bulls has carried the index up by 1,237 points, or 2.7pc, since last Friday.

On Wednesday, however, the stockbrokers, traders and investors were celebrating not as much the surge in index as the “all-time high volumes of 1.56 billion shares traded in a single day”. The previous highest number of shares in one day changed hands at 1.12bn on Feb 11, 2021.

It is a different matter that 708m shares, or 45pc, of the aggregate trading took place in the penny stock WorldCall Telecom — which saw movement in stock price by 41.2pc to Rs3.22. The overwhelming interest in the telecom stock suggested some developments which were not known to all.

Reports suggested that the talks on the buy/sell deal with the ARY group had progressed. But there were also chatter of another media group — other than ARY — to have entered into a deal with Omantel, which holds majority stockholding of 65pc in WorldCall. Omantel, the parent company whose majority stake is with the Government of Oman, was said to have provided support to the group. Or was it all speculation?

Ahmed Chinoy, the elected director at the PSX, did not think so: “There cannot be smoke without a fire,” he said and thought that there should be some “substance” to WorldCall to record such high volume”. He said overall the market was bullishly inclined due to visible improvement in economic conditions. Shrinking balance of payment deficit, rising reserves, exceptionally high projected GDP growth; excellent receipts under the RDA all pointed to the robust health of the economy. Sector-wise also cement, textiles, automobiles and many more were at their record best, he said.

Asad Umar leapt to his twitter handle: “The record traded volume is the reaction to signs of sustained (economic) recovery. The successful containment of the Covid third wave, though risk still remains, also adding to positive sentiments”, he tweeted at noon.

Mohammad Sohail, CEO at Topline Securities, said that the rally in the stock market was mainly driven by better than expected GDP growth numbers.

The finance minister’s statement that the upcoming budget would be growth-oriented in spite of IMF conditions, also supported investors’ confidence. He said: “As observed in the past few months’ retail investor participation is growing due to additional cash liquidity. This was seen today also when Worldcall and small and mid-cap stocks saw abnormally high volumes.”

Mr Sohail believed that Thursday could be another important day at the PSX as MSCI Rebalancing would become effective pushing traded value to a high in selected large cap stocks.

Technology, fertiliser and steel remained particularly active. While Hum Network (14.7pc), Unity Foods (3.5pc), Byco (1.4pc) and PIAA (22.1pc) saw major activity.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2021