KARACHI: Stocks skyrocketed on Tuesday with the KSE-100 index up by 616.41 points (1.53 per cent) to settle a stone’s throw away from the 41,000 level at 40,956.58.

Although, after two successive days of positive closures, traders expected the market to be ripe for another major rally, the ferocity of the bulls surprised the investors.

The market started out in the positive and did not once look back but started on a steep climb to intra-day high of 717 points as investors threw caution to the wind relating to the political uncertainty due to the anti-government alliance rallies and the scare of the second wave of Covid-19 which the PM warned could strike in winter.

The positive development in the three-day Financial Action Task Force preliminary session scheduled to commence from Wednesday where Pakistan is expected to get relief from enhanced follow-up list, also buoyed sentiments.

Foreign investors bought shares worth $0.96 million on attractive valuations. Among local participants, mutual funds accumulated stocks of $1.71m to make good the sell-off during recent redemptions. Brokers also took fresh positions in value scrips worth $1.79m while insurance companies decided to take profit.

The rally was triggered in big measure by the flow of corporate results which were generally better-than-expected. According to Arif Habib Ltd, the oil and gas marketing companies and exploration and production sectors contributed the most the index upsurge, followed by cement, power and banking scrips.

Traded volumes surged 54pc over the previous day to 492.7m shares while the traded value also climbed by 106pc to reach $101.7m.

Cements led the bulls which saw the entire sector turn green in the lead of the major stock Lucky Cement.

Other gainers that helped index in its steep climb included Hub Power Comp­any Company, up 86 points, Meezan Bank Ltd 50 points, Pakistan Petroleum Ltd 44 points and Oil and Gas Deve­lopment Company 35 points). The Habib Bank Ltd and Pakistan State Oil also rose by 1.3pc and 2.2pc, respectively.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2020