KARACHI, Jan 27: The share market staged a strong rebound on Tuesday as the fund and institutional buying figured prominently on select counters, lifting the KSE 100-share index higher by 3.26 per cent or 157.21 points at 4,972.55.

“The Rubicon has at last been crossed after much water has already flown under the bridge,” analysts said, adding if the rebound at the terribly lower levels is sustained during the next couple of sessions there could be a real bonanza for many massively mauled investors.

The KSE 30-share index on the other hand showed a smart recovery of 4.80 per cent or 212.64 points at 4,640.74, while the KSE All Share Index rose by 108.16 points at 3,755.26 or 2.97 per cent.

Bank, oil, fertiliser and some leading shares came in for active short-covering and led the market recovery adding Rs45.743 billion to the market capital at Rs1590.14 billion.

Analysts could cite many reasons behind any rally or plunge as the situation demands but objective conditions counsel a pragmatic approach in both the cases.

A cut in interest rates hinted at by Shaukat Tarin, for instance during this year could reinforce the investor bullish perceptions irrespective of the IMF conditions and that could cause miracles in a highly oversold market, they added.

But many investors doubted the market’s ability to sustain snap rallies in the prevailing political and financial scenario and only possible if there are real efforts by the funding agencies to keep the tempo.

Most analysts believe that it is too early to jump to conclusions about the future direction of the market as the next couple of sessions will show if it is sustained or falter half way.

“In the absence of foreign investors who are still in the sellers’ line, it appears pretty difficult for the State Enterprise Fund or the institutional traders to keep the market in a positive mood in the backdrop of an attractive bait of capital gains at the current levels,” they added.

For the first time after several weeks, advancing shares held a strong lead over the losing ones under the lead of Habib Bank, MCB Bank, National Bank, EFU General, PSO, Pakistan Oilfields, Pakistan Petroleum, PECO, Engro Chemical, Fauji Fertiliser, Glaxo-SKF, BOC Pakistan, Clariant Pakistan, Sitara Chemicals and Tri-Pack Films, which recovered by Rs2.55 to Rs8.35. But largest rise was again noted in Siemens Pakistan, up by Rs40.

Losers were led by Rafhan Maize, off Rs78.95 on foreign selling followed by Thal Industries, New Jubilee Insurance, Shell Pakistan, Pakistan Services and Sanofi-Aventis, off by Rs2.69 to Rs10.59.

Trading volume rose further to 194.227m shares from the previous 126m shares as gainers topped losers by 178 to 70, with nine shares holding onto the last levels.

NIB Bank led the list of actives, up by 61 paisa at Rs4.56 on 35m shares followed by OGDC, firm by 93 paisa at Rs41.90 on 21m shares, JS & CO, up Rs1.15 at Rs24.22 on 16m shares, PTCL, steady by 78 paisa at Rs12.78 on 16m shares, Arif Habib Securities, lower by 32 paisa at Rs18.23 on 14m shares and WorldCall Telecom, steady by 11 paisa at Rs2.84 on 10m shares.

Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim followed them, up 33 paisa at Rs15.06 on 5m shares, D.G. Khan Cement, higher by 86 paisa at Rs13.87 on 5m shares and Adamjee Insurance, off Rs2.22 at Rs46.27 on 4m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: Pakistan Petroleum came in for modest selling and fell by Rs2.20 at Rs135.50 on 500 shares, while all others recovered modestly under the lead of Pakistan Oilfields and PSO, which were quoted higher by Rs2.29 and Rs2.03 at Rs85 and Rs104, respectively, on 500 shares each.

OGDC rose by 73 paisa at Rs41.80 on 1,000 shares. Transactions on this counter totalled 3,000 shares breaking the current lull.

DEFAULTER COMPANIES: Activity was also witnessed on this counter in sympathy with snap recovery in the ready section under the lead of Zeal-Pak Cement, steady by two paisa at Rs0.42 on 1.352m shares followed by followed by Japan Power, firm by one paisa at Rs1.20 on 0.326m shares and Unity Modaraba, steady by one paisa at Rs0.21 on 70,000 shares.

Among the other actives, Invest Bank was leading, unchanged at Rs1.80 on 91,000 shares, Medi Glass, higher by Re1 at Rs1.70 on 500 shares and Al-Asif Sugar and Bawany Sugar, higher by Re1 each at Rs4.65 and Rs4.20 respectively on light volumes.