KARACHI: Investors’ confidence surged on Monday as they sensed slowdown in selling by foreign investors and witnessed the rise in international crude prices to a six-month high.

The rupee’s recovery against the dollar provided further impetus to investors to build fresh positions in stocks across all sectors.

All of that propelled the KSE-100 index to a new all-time high of 43,739.97 points, representing robust gains of 469.07 points (1.08 per cent).

Data released by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan provided comfort to investors as it showed net foreign buying worth $0.84 million on Monday. It was a departure from the huge foreign sell-off amounting to $125.7m in November.

Overall, volumes decre­ased 8pc over the previous session to 346m shares while the trading value increased 12pc to Rs14.1 billion.

“The rally in crude oil during the European market session helped E&P companies gain traction with OGDC 4.93pc, POL 3.81pc, PPL 3.69pc and Mari 3.18pc closing up well into the green, adding 196 points to the KSE-100 index. Following suit, energy plays rallied amidst renewed momentum with Hascol 1.83pc, Shell 2.24pc, PSO 0.47pc and Attock Refinery 0.61pc also closing in the green,” stated analysts at Intermarket Securities.

Contribution to the index rise also came from banks as MCB rose by 0.94pc, UBL 1.32pc, NBP 2.72pc and Bank Alfalah 1.55pc. “Cement and fertiliser sectors also provided support to the index owing to the off-take surpassing expectations and possibility of fertiliser exports on the back of reduced fuel gas prices,” said Invest and Finance Head of Sales Imran Ali.

DGKC was the major gainer (0.93pc) in the cement sector in addition to Lucky Cement 0.72pc, Maple Leaf 1.29pc, Fauji Cement 2.17pc and Cherat Cement 1.52pc.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2016