KARACHI: Stocks kept its course to the north on Friday to add 73.36 points to the KSE-100 index which closed at 30,098.49. Turnover in terms of shares traded remained about unchanged though trading value rose by 16 per cent to Rs10 billion, as a couple of top-tier stocks saw brisk trading.

The foreign investors resu­med selling with stocks worth $4.02 million offloaded on Friday, after a day’s respite, taking the outflow for the week at $15.2m which was in addition to net foreign selling of $8.9m the earlier week.

In the trading on Friday, the share in PSO saw a run-up to close at its ‘upper circuit’ following rumours of government making disbursement of Rs25bn to the oil marketing company.

The results announcement impacted several shares. In the banking sector, HBL was down by 1.2pc after it announced 3Q2014 earnings per share (eps) at Rs4.74. In the Cement sector, DGKC was up by 0.2pc after it announced improved 1QFY15 eps at Rs2.64.

Brokerage Sunrise Capital recorded buying in oil and gas sector as major giants PPL, MARI, SHEL and OGDCL appreciated by 1.67pc, 1.37pc, 4.46pc, and 0.70pc, respectively. Banking sector witnessed profit taking where UBL, SILK and BOP shed 0.69pc, 4.67pc and 0.35pc of the value, though AKBL and BAFL rose by 1.20pc and 0.24pc.

Over the week, the KSE-100 index gained 176 points or 0.6pc. Analysts noted that the winding-up of sit-in protest by PAT in Islamabad and strong corporate results some­w­hat revived market sentiments.

The weekly report by KASB Securities observed that average daily volume and value traded rose 24pc and 18pc WoW, respectively.

“Weakness in the oil stocks from four-year low oil prices, political uncertainty and continued foreign selling restric­ted any upside in the index,” analysts at KASB stated.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2014