KARACHI: Stocks extended gains on Thursday with KSE-100 index once again breaching the 30,000 level to settle at 30,025.13. It represented addition of 84.74 points to the index.

The icing on the cake was the recouping of market capitalisation which also jumped over Rs7 trillion. The market did show a bit of volatility, but the index was inclined towards the north as corporates generally came up with better than expected results.

Investors heaved a sigh of relief as foreign selling seemed to come to a halt on Thursday with the day’s trading ending on a marginal inflow of $0.41m. “It could signify the return of the foreigners for cherry picking after 10 sessions of $26.72m worth stock sell-off,” said head of equity sales at a brokerage house.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp commented that stocks closed higher in the quarter end earnings announcement session as global equities were seen to be recovering from sharp fall.

Investor interest remai­ned in selected stocks across the board on easing political concerns and favourable government borrowing data for Jul-Oct 2014.

“Hopes for major developments in China power projects funding and privatisation plan of SOEs played a catalyst role in bullish activity at KSE,” Mehanti said.

Stock brokerage firm Sunrise Capital observed that the Bullish sentiments prevailed in cement sector, where CHCC, LUCK, MLCF and PIOC appreciated by 4.9pc, 1.04pc, 1.07pc and 4.99pc, respectively.

In commercial banking sector ABL, UBL, BAFL, BAHL surged by 1.39pc, 0.41pc, 0.69pc and 1.36pc.

Analyst Arham Ghous discussed impact of results announcement on related company stocks: Engro Fertiliser rose 1.2pc which lifted investor spirit with an impressive 9M2014 earning per share (eps) of Rs4.19 compared with Rs2.77 YoY.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014