KARACHI: Stocks struggled to find a firm foothold in early trade but managed to rally later in the day that saw the KSE-100 index gain 139.60 points to close at 31,509.11.

Investor participation was significantly low with volume at just 94m shares, while the trading value declined to Rs5.8bn as some of the index heavy oil and gas scrips saw quick change of hands.

E&P sector contributed 84 points to the day’s gains as investors’ interest was rekindled by the improvement in international oil prices and Opec’s statement of supporting steps to curtail oil production.

Pakistan Oilfields and Mari Petroleum closed at their upper limits (up 5pc), while Oil and Gas Development Company and Pakistan Petroleum rose 2.8pc and 1.3pc, respectively.

Cement sector stocks continued to attract investor’s attention in anticipation of better cement sales in Feb 2016. D.G. Khan Cement (DGKC), Lucky Cement (LUCK) and Maple Leaf Cement (MLCF) rose 0.8 to 1.3%.

On the banking sector, the results released by Bank Alfalah came at lower end of investors’ expectations which saw the stock drop 5pc.

HBL (0.01pc), NBP (0.70pc) and BAHL (1.68pc) gained as Consumer Price Index for February 2016 rose 4pc. BAFL, FFBL and HUBC pushed index down by 53 points.

EFERT (up 0.45pc) continued its previous day gain on the back of reports that the company would continue to receive 60mmcfd gas from the Mari network.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp stated that the bullish activity was led by oil, fertilisers and cement scrips amid recovery in global equities and crude prices.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2016