KARACHI, Feb 22: The stocks roared higher on Karachi Stock Exchange so as to easily crash through the KSE-100 index barrier of 18,000 points. The index jumped 153.25 points to close at 18,074.27 on Friday.

Led by Engro, MCB Bank and telecoms, all hitting their 'upper circuit', the market turned north after an initial extension of the previous day’s decline.

The significant feature of the day’s trading was the non-participation by oil and gas stocks. The heavyweight OGDC remained quiet with a small gain of 48 paisa, contributing at most 10 points to the index rise. Yet, addition of Rs10.94 to the price of MCB Bank stock accounted for almost half of the day’s gains.

Stock brokers, traders and investors celebrated the index rise to another historic high.

One of the leading brokers, Aqeel Karim Dhedhi (AKD) said he was scarcely surprised. “The Pakistan equity market has great potential and there is a long way to go before reaching the cliff,” he said. AKD believed that the healthy corporate earnings and interest rate decline had rejuvenated investor confidence in the market.

Sector-wise, he said, the Oil and Gas sector was benefiting after acceleration in the E&P activities; textiles had benefited from low cotton prices, EU concessions and devaluation of the rupee.

Banks were reporting robust profitability with both textile and banks able to reduce financial charges and bad debts, fertiliser production was set to rise following the solution of gas issues, cements were gaining from increased utilised capacities and higher prices as construction activities pick up pace.

Healthy earnings growth had seen pharmaceutical companies trading at high double digit multiples. Broker AKD said that the Pakistani stocks were currently at multiple of 7 times the forward earnings, which was substantially lower than 9.5 per cent discount rates.

CEO at Topline Securities, Mohammad Sohail said that the index had managed to cross the psychological level of 18,000 points due to continuous buying by foreign fund managers in recent days. He noted that the volumes remained hefty, with the investors focus on telecom stocks due to positive news flow.

Slight correction was, however, witnessed in the oil stocks due to falling international oil prices.

Foreign investors bought shares of the value of $1.9 million on Friday, compared to hefty purchases of $4 million worth stocks on Thursday. The day's inflow increased the total net buying by foreign funds and individuals for the month to $24.34 million. Volume increased to 369 million shares on Friday, from 350 million shares traded the previous day. Market

capitalisation scaled to Rs4.492 trillion, from Rs4.465 trillion on Thursday. Trading value also increased to Rs9.4bn, from Rs8.6 billion.

The market capitalisation based KSE-30 index rose by 144.81 points to 14,814.06 points.

In all 365 stocks came up for trading with 208 gainers and 141 losers. The highest gain for the day, amounting to Rs10.94 was noted in MCB Bank, which closed at Rs230.23. On the active list, telecom stocks lead the rally following the Supreme Court ruling against High Court orders on International Clearing House deal raising higher earnings outlook on LDI revenues.

WorldCall Telecom saw highest business in 46 m shares, the stock up by 14 paisa to Rs3.84. Telecard finished ‘limit up’ by addition of Re1 to Rs7.10 on 32m shares; PTCL also hit the ‘upper circuit’, gaining Rs1.14 to Rs23.97 on 30m shares.

TRG Pakistan added 25 paisa to Rs8.28 on 26m shares; Maple Leaf Cement gained 53 paisa to Rs18.94 on 23m shares; Wateen Telecom edged higher by 9 paisa to Rs4.12 on 20m shares; Fauji Cement was up by 14 paisa to Rs7.98 on 20m shares; Jah Sidd Co declined by 26 paisa to Rs18.62 on 15m shares; Nishat Mills recorded sharp gains of Rs3.33 to Rs72.36 on 13m shares and Engro Corporation saw maximum day’s gain of Rs5.16 to Rs108.41 on 12m shares.