KARACHI: The stock market managed to break the five-day losing spell on Wednesday with KSE-100 index recovering 560.01 points (1.25 per cent) to close at 45,474.46.

It chipped off a little from the staggering losses of 15.97pc that the index had suffered until Tuesday, since hitting its intraday all-time high of 53,124 points on May 25.

Over the past 12 years, the Pakistani market has fallen 10pc or greater on 12 occasions, recollected Top­line Securities.

“Excluding the crashes of 47pc in 2008 and the 2005 crash of 36pc over the badla crisis, on an average the market recovered around six weeks after bottoming out,” analysts said. The highest fall since the 2008 crash was seen in early 2015 when the index fell 17pc due to foreign selling.

Market participants were relieved to see a break in the stocks sell-off. Many hoped that the recovery would continue today (Thursday), being the last day of trading before Eid holidays.

But yesterday’s session was not devoid of volatility as the index fluctuated between -1,088 points and +851 points, before settling down to a positive close. Individuals were major sellers of $13.92 million worth of stocks, which were absorbed to a great extent by foreign investors who made net purchases of $9.52m.

Heavyweight over-sold stocks from the banking sector led the rally as HBL regained 0.8pc, UBL 2.3pc, ABL 0.5pc and NBP 0.3pc and MCB 2.3pc making aggregate contribution of 169 points to the index. NML rose 4.8pc, ISL 4.3pc, HUBC 4.81pc hit the upper circuits.

Other major contributors to upside were HUBC 3.82pc, ENGRO 2.91pc, UBL 2.48pc, DGKC 4.56pc and SNGP 4.81pc, which together added 256 points to the index.

From the sector perspective, utilities rose 2.84pc, material 1.66pc and financials 1.36pc, contributing towards a positive close.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2017