KARACHI: Stocks managed to make a major breakthrough on Wednesday after a flat performance in the last couple of sessions.

The KSE-100 index surged 302 points, or 0.61 per cent, to close at 49,754.72.

The market opened on a shaky note, but the index continued to climb in the rest of the session. “KSE-100 index resumed its upward trend after bouncing off a strong technical support in yesterday’s session,” said dealers at Topline Securities.

The volume edged up 3.3pc over the previous day to 245 million shares while the value climbed 8pc to Rs12.4 billion.

Thirty-eight stocks managed to close on their upper limits while none fell to hit its lower limit.

Support to the rally was underpinned by gains in several sectors, particularly steel. Shares of Aisha Steel Mills, International Steels and Crescent Steel and Allied Products rose between 4.1pc and 4.8pc.

Major gainers on Wednesday were Dawood Hercules Corporation 2.77pc, Nestle Pakistan 2.20pc, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim 5pc and MCB Bank 0.78pc.

Interest was seen in Sui Northern Gas Pipelines and Sui Southern Gas Company, which rose 2.7pc and 3.4pc, respectively, on the back of Ogra’s consultation on the unaccounted-for gas benchmark.

On the flip side, Hub Power Company and Lucky Cement, which went down by 0.62 and 0.50pc, respectively, took away 23 points from the index.

Steel, consumer staples, health care and cement sectors contributed the most towards the index closing in the green.

Analysts at a major brokerage house maintained that an early and favourable outcome of the Panama Papers case and the

launch of a refurbished financing product could be strong triggers for the market in the near term, providing the much-needed impetus to unlock further upside.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2017