Stocks rise on foreigners’ cherry-picking
KARACHI: Stocks extended the gains for fourth successive session on Thursday with the KSE-100 index closing up by 105.19 points (0.30 per cent) at 35,758.52.
While institutions stayed away from the market, foreigners swooped to cherry-pick blue chips worth $3.16 million. Individuals who had led buying in the last couple of sessions sold shares worth $1.15m as their optimism gave way to fears due to lack of positive triggers and stalled talks between the government and opposition over the Islamabad sit-in.
The risk appetite also diminished due to release of higher-than-expected inflation figure for October, which dimmed hopes of cut in rates in the upcoming monetary policy which until sometime back looked like a strong possibility.
However, decisions taken in the Economic Coordination Committee to support infrastructure and power sectors proved helpful. The index moved in a narrow band between the intraday high and low by 181 and 195 points.