KARACHI: After taking a breather a day earlier, bulls stormed forward on Wednesday where the KSE-100 index crashed through the strong barrier of 45,000 points and clocked in massive gains of 503 points or 1.13 per cent to climb to 31-month high at 45,153 points.

The index settled at just 40 points short of the day’s high of 45,194 points. Market capitalisation saw addition of Rs95 billion in a single day.

The significant feature of the day was the surprise buying by foreign investors of stocks worth $1.37 million. Among local participants, only companies matched that figure with net purchases of equity amounting to $1.62m.

Investors picked up equities from across the sectors which included exploration and poduction on account of spike in international oil price on the conclusion of agreement among OPEC+ countries.

Pakistan Oilfields, Oil and Gas Development Company and Pakistan Petroleum closed in the green.

Oil marketing companies also saw stock prices rise. Analysts at JS Global commented that regardless of the fact that that the independent power producers cast off the government’s plan for circular debt and demanded 50pc upfront cash payments before signing formal agreement for tariff discount, the power sector managed to remain positive.

Pakgen Power Ltd and Lalpir Power Ltd closed at their upper circuits. However, selling was witnessed in Hub Power and Kot Addu Power. All four Refineries posted varying gains including Byco, Pakistan Refinery Ltd, Attock Refinery Ltd and Nishat Refinery Ltd.

Rejuvenated buying was witnessed in the cement sector for the second day on market murmur of price increases by Rs7-10 per bag. Fertiliser stocks also edged higher while the banking sector also turned green with Meezan Bank hitting the upper lock. Investors expect the banking sector to produce improved annual results with anticipation of dividend payouts.

Traded volumes increased 14pc over the previous day to 664.5m shares.

The traded value also crept up by 2pc to reach $154m. Scrips that led the gainers included Lucky Cement, Dalwood Hercu­les, Pakistan Oilfield, Meezan Bank, Pak Suzuki and Pakistan Tobacco.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2021