KARACHI: Stocks snapp­­ed three day losing streak on Wednesday as the KSE-100 index climbed back 278.60 points (0.64 per cent) to close at 43,507.50.

Market remained choppy with the index moving in the range of intraday high and low of 361 and 12 points. There was no plug on the foreign selling with outflow noted at $2.81 million by the National Clearing Company Ltd, but the ‘companies’ absorbed it all.

Recovery of the market owed itself to two key factors that helped garner investors’ interest. The Supreme Court gave consent to the tax amnesty scheme announced by the former PML-N government, which prompted many analysts to predict inflows in attractively priced equities to avail the scheme. In another development, the caretaker Finance Minister Shamshad Akhtar had concluded press conference a day earlier, painting a generally blended picture of the economy and aired no concerns of an extremely distressed situation.

However, activity slowed down with market volume 19pc lower than the previous day at 112m shares and traded value down 5 pc to Rs5.66 billion. Bank of Punjab, Meezan Bank, K-Electric, DG Khan Cement and TRG Pakistan were leaders, reflecting 31pc of the total turnover.

Sectors contributing to the index upsurge included banks, higher by 84 points, exploration and production 65 points, fertiliser 59 points, oil and gas marketing companies 55 points, engineering 29 points.

Major scrips-wise gainers were Habib Bank, up 0.7pc, Oil and Gas Development Company 0.8pc, United Bank 0.9pc, Engro Corpora­tion 0.5pc, MCB Bank 0.4pc, Pakistan Oilfields 0.9pc and Fauji Fertiliser 1.5pc which cumulatively contributed 101 points. On the flip side, Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan, down 5pc, and Hub Power 0.72pc took away 27 points.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2018