KARACHI, March 16 The avalanche of foreign sell orders was fully absorbed by local investors and institutions who were rarely seen in such a buoyant mood as at the crack of dawn on Monday.

Foreign investors seized the opportunity to dispose of some of their holdings at high prices. Net foreign selling on Monday stood at $7.45 billion, against purchases of equity worth $0.63 million.

That represented net selling by overseas investors in the sum of $6.83 million, rounded off to $7 million.

“This is the highest selling seen in the last seven weeks,” commented an analyst.

Aggregate volume of trade at the Karachi Stock Exchange on Monday was worth $33 million.

Right from the start, few dealers were holding less than three phones at a time to write orders from impatient clients, all willing to pay cash for stocks (in the absence of the popular leverage product). The urgency of buyers to seek entry into the market was understandable as most blue chip scrips, across the board, hit their `upper circuit`, in fewer than 50 minutes.

The market closed 5.44 per cent higher with the KSE-100 index soaring 313 points to cross the 6,000 level. High turnover and good amount of volatility offered day traders ample opportunity to make money.

Mohammad Sohail, a leading analyst and stock strategist observes “The market was not expecting the resolution of the political crisis so soon, which is why stock prices rallied by more than five per cent.”

He said though investor confidence had been restored partially, liquidity issue still prevailed.

“Going forward, economic fundamentals would act as key drivers of the market,” says Mr Sohail.

Amid celebrations and jubilations, that slightly nagging concern of how the economic and even political events would unfold in the future was there to stay, regardless of the fact that after weeks of depression most investors wanted to see just the rosy side of the picture.

The statement by Shaukat Tarin, adviser to the PM on Finance, that tax regime for the stock exchanges would remain the same for the current year was taken to mean an affirmation of the extension in exemption of capital gains tax and was a sentiment booster. And so also the fact that everybody in any kind of authority was raising their hands for cut in interest rates and there were indications of lower inflationary and current account deficit numbers.

On the darker side, analysts thought that the financial results for the next reporting season could be cheerless, especially those of commercial banks.

Low growth and rising non-performing loans were believed to stall profitability of the banking sector. Dollar/rupee parity was also a restraining issue. But for all that most market participants were hopeful of a positive turn of events.

A market player summed up the Monday mood “If one of the major concerns can go, let`s hope others will follow.”