KARACHI: Stocks recou­ped on Friday part of the massive losses suffered a day earlier, with the KSE-100 index closing up by 295.34 points (0.76 per cent) at 39,080.

The market opened weak and extended the losses, touching the intraday low for 2017 at 38,431 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Ltd said the news of a sudden depreciation in the value of the rupee in the interbank market gave a boost to oil and gas, textile and technology scrips, which have exposure to the dollar.

Dealers at JS Global affirmed that the exchange rate adjustment was seen as a positive sign for the equity market since more than a quarter of market capitalisation directly benefits from the rupee depreciation. Exploration and production, independent power producers, textiles and IT-related companies will be major beneficiaries of a higher exchange rate.

However, sentiments cooled down with the recovery of the rupee in the second half, reversing much of the earlier gains. With the spotlight on the rupee, market participants disregarded the countrywide protests over President Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and the local political scene where the opposition was baying for the government’s blood.

The market volume, alth­ou­gh healthy, fell 8.4pc from a day ago to 149.5 million shares while the traded value rose 18pc to Rs7.34 billion.

Volume leaders included WorldCall Telecom, TRG Pakistan, Sui Southern Gas Company, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines and Pak Elektron, which together contributed 54.5m shares, translating into 37pc of the aggregate turnover.

Key sectors contributing to the upsurge were banking, oil and gas, exploration and production and fertiliser.

Major gainers were Millat Tractors, up 1.5pc, Pakistan Oilfields 2.5pc, Pakistan Petroleum 2.6pc and

Engro Corp 2.4pc. Major laggards were Indus Motor Company, down 2.9pc, National Refinery 3pc, Pak Suzuki 1.5pc and Packages Ltd 1.3pc.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2017