293-point gain tosses index above 33,000-level
KARACHI: Stocks rallied on Friday with the KSE-100 index adding 293.31 points (0.90 per cent) to close at 33,056.79.
Investor sentiments received a big boost from the go-ahead to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor given to the government at the All Party Conference on Thursday.
Analyst Mohammad Rizwan at Topline Securities observed that attractive valuation tempted investors to take position in heavyweight stocks.
Buying spree in cement sector continued on the back of proposed higher development spending in FY16.
Another analyst noted that the cement sector heavyweights DGKC, FCCL, and MLCF ended up by 0.6pc, 1.5pc, and 1.4pc on the yen’s fall against the dollar.
Strong volumes were witnessed in the banking sector which remained mixed throughout the day’s trade. Heavy investment in PIBs attracted interest in MCB, HBL and AKBL, all ending at their ‘upper-circuit’ of 5pc.
Volumes rose to 304 million shares of Rs14 billion value, up from 148m shares worth Rs6.6bn traded a day ago.
Side-board scrips were the volume leaders.
Analyst Ahsan Mehanti commented that the recovery in global crude prices, speculations ahead of Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation data for May 2015 and record allocations for PSDP in the budget 2015-16 played a catalyst role in bullish activity.
Over the week, the market managed to catch up some lost ground as the benchmark index added 451 points (1.4pc).
Foreign investors were net sellers with FIPI outflow clocking in at $6.8m for the week against inflow of $3.5m seen last week.
Among local participants, mutual funds were major net buyers of $8.3m while banks were major net sellers of $3m.
Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2015
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