KARACHI: Bulls rampaged through the stock market for the second day in succession with the KSE-100 index raking up gains of 856.80 points (2.90 per cent — the highest in last 55 sessions) as the index roared past the 30,000 level and settled at 30,419.22.

In the first two days of the week, the index has recovered a staggering 1,655 points or 5.75pc. The remarkable comeback by the market has left investors in a daze; many of them still unsure if it is a long lasting trend.

Many market participants believed that the investors’ interest in equities was fuelled by the thaw in tensions with India over Kashmir after the US President intervened to ease the situation by putting a call through to the PMs of Pakistan and India.

On the market side, the stocks were heavily oversold trading at forward price-to-earnings ratio of 5 times which was 11-year low. Investors were also encouraged by news of SECP team’s visit to the PSX and holding discussions with stakeholders.

The market opened positive and intraday the index propelled by 941 points on the back of gains in the banking, fertiliser, E&Ps, power and oil & gas marketing sectors.

Among banks top contributions to the index were made by HBL, MCB Bank, UBL and Bank Alfalah all of which closed at their upper circuits. In the E&P, all three major scrips, OGDC, PPL and POL extended the earlier day’s gains.

The trading volume was up 39pc to 102.5m shares over the previous day while the trading value improved 42pc to $35.3pc. Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included BOP, TRG, MLCF, PPL and KEL, which formed 27% of total volumes.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2019