KARACHI, April 30: A record-breaking bull run at the Karachi Stock Exchange this month propelled the KSE-100 index to an all-time high at 12,370 points on Monday, beating the previous closing high of 12,273 touched on April 17, 2006.

Market capitalisation soared to a new peak of Rs3,604 billion, equivalent to $60 billion. The KSE accomplished the feat on a day when most regional markets except China’s Shanghai Composite Index, showed a slight downturn.

Market participants at the KSE had ‘all the right reasons’ to offer. Arif Habib, a former chairman of the KSE, attributed the peaking to free flow of liquidity, an anticipation of decline in interest rates, a possible international re-rating of Pakistani markets and the heavy influx of foreign investment and said these factors had buoyed investors’ sentiment. He calculated foreign funds investment at a phenomenal $138 million into the country’s securities market during the past 17 days, based on foreign portfolio figures released by the State Bank. The Sacra figures -- as they are called -- had leapt from $574 million on April 9 to $712 million on April 27.

According to Shehzad Chamdia, a sitting director on the KSE board, for the past quarter, shares in the Pakistani markets had been trading at discounted values. He said that with the improvement of the ‘investor perception’, the market had adjusted itself to its true value.

Mohammad Sohail, director equity broking at JS Global, said that the market had been driven by “impressive corporate results and foreign buying”. He said that the current result season had disclosed better-than-expected third-quarter 2007 financial figures in several sectors, including banks, cements, oil marketing and refineries.

Analysts said that on Monday there was also a positive flow of news including the British Oil and the gas group BP Plc’s decision to run in the race for securing controlling stake in the PSO.