KARACHI: Stocks pos­ted strong recovery on Wednes­day as the KSE-100 index gained 304 points (0.74 per cent) to close at 41,595.

The trading hours were cut short by an hour and a half as market had to be brought to a halt at 2.10pm due to ‘technical issues’. The index did not look back from the word go and rose to intraday high by 334 points, before closing on slightly clipped gains.

The volume slipped by 28pc over the earlier day to 103m shares while the traded value declined 28pc to Rs5.44 billion, which was attributed to shortened trading time.

Foreign investors sold shares valued at $0.67m and mutual funds were noticeable sellers of net $3.97m worth equity. Among other participants, companies and banks bought shares of the cumulative worth $2.71m.

Topline Securities stated that Lucky Cement, which went up 2.5pc, DAWH 2.7pc, POL 1.4pc, MCB Bank 0.9pc and DGKC 1.9pc, adding 101 points to the index, while Nestle fell 2pc, ABOT 2.4pc, Bata Pakistan 4.7pc, HMB 1.5pc, AICL 1.3pc, eroding 33 points.

Sector-wise, cement added 70 points, fertiliser and oil & gas marketing both added 40 points. On the other hand, food & personal care erased 12 points.

Analysts at JS Global stated that the positive sentiment in the market was attributable to attractive valuations of the KSE-100 index stocks. Banking sector closed positively where MCB gained 0.88pc, UBL 0.34pc and NBP 0.47pc.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp commented that stocks closed higher in the quarter-end earnings season rally after strong financial results in oil, cement and banking sector. Institutional interest was witnessed in the late session rally on reports of rising local cement prices, subdued political noise, and speculations on likely stocks market package and higher global crude prices.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2017