KARACHI: The rally extended into the second day on Wednesday as the KSE-100 index climbed by 371.19 points, or 1.23 per cent, to settle at 30,605.06.

“Buying by local institutions helped KSE-100 gain 5.8pc in the last two sessions to more than recoup the heavy loss of 3.4pc suffered on Monday,” an investment analyst said.

The numbers provided by the NCCPL on Wednesday showed that banks and mutual funds picked up equities worth $10.17 million and $5.40m.

Banks have bought shares worth $46.5m in the last five sessions while individuals still shaky over the Monday’s meltdown decided to take profit by the sale of $11.70m worth shares. Foreign investors resumed sell-off, reflecting net outflow of $5.72m.

Traded volume declined by 6pc to 245.9m shares while total traded value improved by 33pc to Rs15.2 billion over the earlier day.

Samar Iqbal, VP equity sales at Topline Securities, said that the institutional buying was witnessed in cement and banking sector, which led MLCF to close at its ‘upper limit’, while Lucky and DGKC were up by 4pc and 1.5pc, respectively.

Leading banks including MCB, NBP, HBL and HMB all closed at their ‘upper circuit’.

Analyst Arhum Ghous at JS Global observed that intense volatility was seen in the market on Wednesday where index rose to intra-day high by 717 points after an initial intra-day low of 210 points.

The CPI numbers at 2.49pc (11-year low), beating the street expectations of 2.7pc, was thought to have created room for a further discount rate cut with leveraged stocks being the potential beneficiaries.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti commented that stocks closed bullish on speculations ahead of quarter end results due next week. Activity was led by cement, fertiliser and banking stocks on strong valuations.

“Revision in local petroleum prices and improving economic indicators played a catalyst role in bullish activity despite late session pressure on falling global commodities prices,” analyst said.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2015

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