KARACHI: The bulls sta­ged a smart comeback on Mo­n­­day as investors were en­c­­o­uraged after war drums fell silent.

Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 index, which took an essential correction last week, defied the trend of global slump and rallied 439 points (1.1 per cent) to close at 40,221.

The trading volume decreased to 484 million shares from 506m shares traded on Friday. Although all 10 volume leaders were second- and third-tier stocks, some big-ticket scrips also performed well on Monday. Trading value, therefore, rose to Rs11.8 billion from Rs6.8bn on Friday.

Industrials rose 3.12pc, telecommunication 2.27pc, cem­ents 1.57pc and consumer goods 1.30pc. Recovery was also seen in and textiles and fertiliser stocks as Nishat Mills (NML), Nishat Chunian and Gadoon Textile hit their upper circuits. Engro Corpo­ration (ENGRO) was up 2.5pc and Fauji Fertiliser (FFC) closed 1.86pc higher.

Among cements, Lucky Cement rose 1.26pc, DG Khan Cement 2.36pc and Maple Leaf Cement 1.60pc. Dewan Cement closed on its upper circuit for the second consecutive day after the comp­any announced it allo­wed a strategic Chinese investor to carry out due diligence.

UBL was up 2.55pc and MCB Bank 0.62pc.

Contributors to the index gains on Monday included UBL, ENGRO, FFC, NML (up 5pc) and Hub Power Company (up 1.01pc). They together added 135 points to the rally.

On the flip side, Murree Bre­w­ery continued its desc­ent, falling 1.38pc and drag­ged the index lower by 45 points.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp commented that foreign inflows, recovery in global oil prices, no change in key interest rate in the latest monetary policy announcement and de-escalation in Indo-Pak war fears played catalyst role in bullish session at the PSX.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2016