KARACHI, March 27: The share market on Thursday maintained its winning streak and sought further higher level as investors continued to build up long positions on banking, oil and cement sectors followed by reports of higher interim profits.

After having crossed the barrier of 15,300 points at 15,336.72, the KSE 100-share index finished well below session’s peak level but up 75.67 points at 15,274.53 on the strength of leading base shares under the lead of base shares.

The KSE 30-share index, on the other hand, again showed a bigger rise of 182.95 points at 18,770.64 as leading industrial base shares maintained their upward drive.

Lively activity, sometimes two-way reflected that the market has overcome most of its irritants and could keep pace with the positive developments on the political front, most floor brokers believe.

“The market now has more than one reasons to be buoyant,” a leading analyst Faisal A. Rajabli said, adding, “a waiver on cash margins, ensuring a massive access to funds after April 7, investors plan to find new outlets to inject in them spoils beyond the cap of Rs55 billion”.

Rs85 billion without any cash margin is a big amount and if invested in the share business in totality, there could be a boom above the current ceiling level of the index well above 15,000 points, he said.

But Ashraf Zakaria, another leading analyst, says the share market beyond the April 7 deadline could tell a different story as along with the enormous local funding under Mk-2, a massive foreign funding is also around and could lead to “too much money chasing few a stock”.

Many others question, with a total market capital of $74 billion, whether or not the local bourse is capable of absorbing all the new funding if investors chose to invest just in one go.

However, there was a near-consensus among the investing public the positive political scenario, which ended the prolonged political uncertainty, could overcome the economic and financial problems on the strength of coalition partners during the next couple of months.

Leading gainers were led by Attock Petroleum, and EFU Life, up by Rs26.90 and Rs26.70, respectively, followed by Atlas Battery, Grays of Cambridge, Siemens Pakistan, Tri-Pack Films, EFU General, MCB Bank, Adamjee Insurance, Pakistan Resource Co, Fazal Textiles, HinoPak, Pakistan Engineering, AKD Capital, and Attock Petroleum, which posted gains ranging from Rs8.35 to Rs19.85.Prominent losers led by JS & Co and Unilever Pakistan, off by Rs20.50 and Rs36.

They were followed by Mirpurkhas Sugar, Shell Gas, Colgate Pakistan, Treet Corporation, Bata Pakistan, Unilever Foods and National Foods, off by Rs6.20 to Rs18.

Traded volume showed a fresh modest rise at 243 million shares as compared to previous 220m shares as gainers maintained slight edge over the losers at 174 to 163, with 40 shares holding on to the last levels.

The most active list was topped by Arif Habib Securities, higher by Rs3.40 at Rs181.40 on 23m shares followed by JS Bank, steady by 55 paisa at Rs21.55 on 17m shares, OGDC, up one rupee at Rs135 on 12m shares, MCB Bank, sharply higher by Rs17.50 at Rs423.50 on 10m shares, D.G. Khan Cement, up by Rs1.05 at Rs112.70 on 9m shares, PTCL, firm by 30 paisa at Rs46.05 also on 9m shares and Pakistan Oilfields, off Rs4 at Rs372.40 on 8m shares. Other actives were led by Bank of Punjab, steady by 25 paisa at Rs67.90 on 16m shares followed by Azgard Nine, higher by Rs3.10 at Rs65.60 on 9m shares and Lucky Cement, lower by 65 paisa at Rs138.25 on 8m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: Bank of Punjab (April contract) led the list of actives on this counter, steady by 23 paisa at Rs68.57 on 6m shares, followed by its March delivery, higher by 37 paisa at Rs68 also on 6m shares, and JS Bank, up 60 paisa at Rs21.85 on 6m shares.